THE COUNTRY CHURCH 
IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 



MARJORIE PATTEN 




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THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN 
COLONIAL COUNTIES 




TO THE ORIGINAL AMERICAN 
The fine bronze statue in Lake George Park 



COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS SURVEYS 

~ TOWN AND COUNTRY DEPARTMENT 

Edmund deS. Brunner, Director 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH 

IN 
COLONIAL COUNTIES 

AS ILLUSTRATED BY 

ADDISON COUNTY, VT., TOMPKINS COUNTY, N. Y. 

AND WARREN COUNTY, N. Y 

BY 

MARJORIE PATTEN 



WITH illustrations 
MAPS AND CHARTS 




NEW ^S^ YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



^3 



COPYRIGHT, 1922, 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



• • 



. e c 



OCT -7 1922 






PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

©C1A683692 



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« \ 



f PREFACE 

» 

THE Committee on Social and Religious Surveys was organized 
in January, 1921. Its aim is to combine the scientific method 
with the religious motive. The Committee conducts and 
publishes studies and surveys and promotes conferences for their 
consideration. It cooperates with other social and religious agen- 
cies, but is itself an independent organization. 

The Committee is composed of : John R. Mott, Chairman ; 
Ernest D. Burton, Secretary; Raymond B. Fosdick, Treasurer; 
James L. Barton and W. H. P. Faunce. Galen M. Fisher is Asso- 
ciate Executive Secretary. The offices are at iii Fifth Avenue, 
New York City. 

In the field of town and country the Committee sought first of 
all to conserve some of the results of the surveys made by the Inter- 
church World Movement. In order to verify some of these surveys, 
it carried on field studies, described later, along regional lines worked 
out by Dr. Warren H. Wilson * and adopted by the Interchurch 
World Movement. These regions are : 

I. Colonial States : All of New England, New York, Penn- 
sylvania and New Jersey. 

II. The South : All the States south of Mason and Dixon's 
line and the Ohio River east of the Mississippi, including Louisiana. 

III. The Southern Highlands Section : This section comprises 
about 250 counties in ''The back yards of eight Southern States." 

IV. The Middle West: The States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, 
Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and northern Missouri. 

V. Northwest : Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and 
eastern Montana. 

VI. Prairie : Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. 

VII. Southwest: Southern Missouri, Arkansas and Texas. 

VIII. Range or Mountain : Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colo- 
rado, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada and western Montana. 

The Director of the Town and Country Survey Department for 
the Interchurch World Movement was Edmund deS. Brunner. He 
is likewise the Director of this Department for the Committee on 
Social and Religious Surveys. 

* See Wilson, "Sectional Characteristics," Homelands, August, 1920. 

V 



PREFACE 

The original surveys were conducted under the supervision of 
the following: 

Addison County — Mr. Charles O. Gill, State Supervisor of the 
Interchurch World Movement, Hartland, Vermont. 

Tompkins County — Rev. Henry Strong Huntington, State Super- 
visor of Interchurch World Movement, New York City; Prof. 
D wight Sanderson, of New York State College of Agriculture at 
Cornell University ; Dr. W. L. Thompson ; J. A. Moore ; P. L. 
Dunn, and others. In the spring of 1921 the field worker, Miss 
Marjorie Patten, of the Committee on Social and Religious Surveys, 
visited these counties, brought up to date the work previously done, 
and obtained information missing in the original study. 

Warren County, New York, was surveyed in the fall of 1921 
by the field workers from the Committee, Benson Y. Landis and 
Marjorie Patten. 

Acknowledgment should be made to Rev. Edmond Twitchell, of 
Glens Falls, for the helpful cooperation and assistance rendered in 
the successful completion of the survey. 

The statistical and graphical editor of this volume was Mr. A. 
H. Richardson, of the Chief Statistician's Division of the American 
Telephone and Telegraph Company, formerly connected with the 
Russell Sage Foundation. 

The technical adviser was Mr. H. N. Morse, of the Presbyterian 
Board of Home Missions, who was also associate director of the 
Town and Country Survey in the Interchurch World Movement. 

Valuable help was given by the Home Missions Council ; by the 
Council of Women for Home Missions through their sub-Committee 
on Town and Country, and by a Committee appointed jointly by the 
Home Missions Council and the Federal Council of Churches for 
the purpose of cooperating with the Committee on Social and Reli- 
gious Surveys in endeavoring to translate the results of the survey 
into action. The members of this Joint Committee on Utilizing 
Surveys are: 

Representing the Federal Council of Churches 
Anna Clark C. N. Lathrop 

Roy B. Guild U. L. Mackey 

A. E. Holt A. E. Roberts 

F. Ernest Johnson Fred B. Smith 

Charles E. Schaeffer 

vi 



PREFACE 

Representing the Home Missions Council and the Council of Women 

for Home Missions 

L. C. Barnes, Chainnan 
Rodney W. Roundy, Secretary 

Alfred W. Anthony Rolvix Harlan 

Mrs. Fred S. Bennett R. A. Hutchison 

C. A. Brooks Florence E. Quinlan 

C. E. Burton W. P. Shriver 

A. E. Cory Paul L. Vogt 

David D. Forsyth Warren H. Wilson 



Vll 



INTRODUCTION 

THE POINT OF VIEW 

THIS book is a study of the work of Protestant town and coun- 
try churches in three counties in New England and New 
York. Its purpose is to show the effect of prosperity upon 
the life of the Church by describing the interaction of the Church 
upon these communities and of these communities upon the Church. 
This survey does not, therefore, attempt to deal directly with the 
spiritual effect of any church upon the life of individuals or groups. 
Such results are not measureable by the foot-rule of statistics or 
by survey methods. It is possible, however, to weigh the concrete 
accomplishments of churches. These actual achievements are their 
fruits and "by their fruits ye shall know them." 

The three counties studies in this book are Addison, Vermont, 
and Tompkins and Warren, New York. Many considerations en- 
tered into their choice. For one thing, it must be borne in mind 
that this book, while complete in itself, is also part of a larger whole. 
From among the one thousand county surveys completed or nearly 
completed by the Interchurch World Movement, twenty-six counties 
situated in the nine most representative rural regions of America 
were selected for intensive study. In this way it was hoped to obtain 
a bird's-eye view of the religious situation as it exists in the more 
rural areas of the United States. All the counties selected were 
chosen with the idea that they were fair specimens of what was to be 
found throughout the area of which they were a part. 

In selecting the counties an effort was made to discover those 
which were typical not merely from a statistical standpoint but also 
from the point of view of the social and religious problems they 
represented. For example, the three counties in New England and 
New York described in this pamphlet were chosen because they are 
representative of large sections throughout the Colonial area. 

It is recognized that there are reasons why exceptions may be 
taken to the choice of counties. No area is completely typical of 
every situation. A careful study of these counties leads, however, 
to the conclusion that they are fair specimens of the region they 
are intended to represent. 

ix 



INTRODUCTION 

All these studies have been made from the point of view of the 
church, recognizing, however, that social and economic conditions 
affect its life. For instance, it is evident that various racial groups 
influence church life differently. Germans and Swedes usually tend 
toward liturgical denominations ; the Scotch to non-liturgical. Again, 
if there are economic pressure and heavy debt, the church faces 
spiritual handicaps and needs a peculiar type of ministry. Because 
of the importance of social and economic factors in the life of the 
Church the opening chapters of this book have been given over to 
a description of these factors. At the first glance some of these facts 
may appear irrelevant, but upon closer observation they will be found 
to have a bearing upon the main theme — the problem of the Church. 

Naturally the greatest amount of time and study has been de- 
voted to the churches themselves. Their history, equipment and 
finances ; their members, services and church organizations ; their 
Sunday schools, young people's societies and community programs, 
have all been carefully investigated and evaluated. 

Intensive investigation has been limited to the distinctively 
rural areas and to those centers of population which have less than 
5,000 inhabitants. In the case of towns larger than this an effort has 
been made to measure the service of such towns to the surrounding 
countryside, but not to study each church and community in detail. 

The material in this book itself will present a composite picture 
of the religious conditions within these three counties. Certain 
major problems which were found with more or less frequency in 
all three counties are discussed as problems and all available infor- 
mation from any of the counties has been incorporated within such 
discussion. The opening pages of the book give, however, a summary 
of the condition within each county. While this method has obvious 
drawbacks, it is felt that these are outweighed by the advantages 
and that this treatment is the best one possible to bring out the 
peculiar conditions existing throughout this area. The appendices 
present the methodology of the survey and the definitions employed. 
They also include in tabular form the major facts of each county as 
revealed by the investigation. These appendices are intended espe- 
cially to meet the needs of church executives and students of soci- 
ology who desire to carry investigation further than is possible in the 
type of presentation used for the main portion of the book. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I The Northern Colonial Area 17 

II The Three Counties 20 

III The Churches 28 

IV Social Agencies and Activities 39 

V Folk Depletion and Missed Opportunities . . 44 

VI Foreigners on the Land 55 

VII The Problem of the Summer Resort . „ . . 57 

VIII What Do the Young People Need? = , , . 60 

IX 0\^R- AND UnDERCHURCHING ....... 64 

X One Way Out — Church Federation and the Ver- 
mont Plan 68 

XI New Rudders for Old Ships 71 

XII The Hand of the Dead 75 

XIII A Backward Look yy 

XIV Concerning the Rural Pastor 83 

XV Conclusion 86 

Appendices 

I Methodology and Definitions 93 

II Tables 97 



XI 



ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS AND CHARTS 

ILLUSTRATIONS 
To THE Original American Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Typical New England 21 

Where Boston Gets Its Milk 22 

A Beauty Spot of New England 23 

Where Farmers Are Prosperous 24 

The Hub of the County 26 

A Reminder of Early Days 28 

True to Architectural Type 32 

Transportation De Luxe 39 

Quite Happy, Thank You ! , o . . 40 

Does It Pay to Advertise? c . . 42 

An Up-to-Date Farmer c , . 45 

Where Education Lags 46 

A Versatile Pastor 62 

One Side of a Village Square 64 

Growth and Decay 65 

A Rural Library y2 

A Live Church in Tompkins County 81 

The Only Community-Minded Church in Warren 

County 90 

MAPS 

New York and Vermont: Locating the Three Counties 18 
Church and Community Map of Addison County, Vt. 30-31 
Church and Community Map of Tompkins County, N. Y. 34-35 

Church and Community Map of Warren County, N. Y. 37 

xiii 



ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS AND CHARTS 
CHARTS 



PAGE 



I How THE Typical Dollar is Raised 36 

II The Churches and Their Memberships ... 50 

III Gain and Loss in Membership 51 

IV Gain and Loss in Membership . . . . , . 51 

V How the Church Dollar is Raised . . . , . 75 

VI Comparative Trends of Population, Church Mem- 
bership AND Attendance 78 

VII How THE Diminishing Dollar is Spent ... 81 

VIII Salary Scale of the Ministers ...... 84 

IX Distribution of Membership 87 



XIV 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN 
COLONIAL COUNTIES 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN 
COLONIAL COUNTIES 

Chapter I 
THE NORTHERN COLONIAL AREA 

THE Colonial area was the birthplace and childhood home of a 
great nation. It was here that young America received her 
early education, when the rest of the country was a wilderness. 
The early colonists were a stern folk, apt to be harsh in creed, 
gloomy in viewpoint, intolerant in religion, but they were enterpris- 
ing, fearless and filled with indomitable will to succeed. They were 
leaders in trade and unmatched in political sagacity. Their code of 
living was established on a rock foundation of lofty ideals, sound 
principles and, most of all, love of home and fear of God. 

America has long since emerged victorious from her early 
struggles and taken her place among the great nations of the world. 
Today in the old Colonial area, which still serves as a living example 
to American civilization, it is amazing to behold the transformation 
three centuries have wrought. No longer is agriculture supreme. 
Here are cities, great and small, with congested population and mam- 
moth industries holding multitudes in their grip. Here is the na- 
tion's greatest trade area, the very core of its tremendous industrial 
and financial development. These changes have brought their prob- 
lems, not alone in the growing cities, but in the country at whose ex- 
pense so much of urban civilization has been built. It was in the 
Colonial area and especially in New England that the ''rural prob- 
lem" first lifted its head and forced itself upon the attention. But 
the tide of rural life which was ebbing has begun to turn. Transition 
and reconstruction are in process. Rural New England is coming 
back, not to ascendancy but to a proper place of social usefulness. 
The present volume is one of three publications dealing with 
the Colonial area and describing intensive studies made of six 
counties which together fairly typify the variety of its rural condi- 
tions. The first volume treats of Salem County, New Jersey, studied 
as typical of the great trucking area. Harford County, Maryland, 

17 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 



and Columbia County, Pennsylvania, are the subject of a second 
publication. These two counties are widely separated as to location 
but show striking likenesses and contrasts. In the former the popu- 
lation has been increased by a recent influx of farmers from the 
south, and during a normal year 8,000 migrant laborers are engaged 
in its seasonal canneries. In the Pennsylvania county, the original 
stock has been augmented by foreign immigration to its anthracite 
coal mines and to the industries of its two cities. Both counties 
are progressive and primarily agricultural in their make-up. The 
three counties considered in this volume are Addison County, Ver- 
mont, a general farming region in the fertile valley of Lake Cham- 




tScala cf Milas 



NEW YORK AND VERMONT 
Locating the Three Counties 

plain; Tompkins County, New York, a typical dairying section of 
central New York State, and Warren County, New York, one of 
the beauty spots of the Adirondack mountains. 

Certain characteristic problems are common to these three coun- 
ties. Certain others are distinctive, and others again are important 
for the light they shed on the evolution of American rural life. All 
three counties have suffered depletion of population. Communities 
big and little, have felt the pull of industry toward the larger centers. 
With the revolutionizing influence of the automobile, better roads 
have been built. Isolation has been greatly lessened. Markets have 
been brought nearer to the gardener. Towns which formerly be- 
lieved themselves a great way off from anywhere have suddenly 

18 



THE NORTHERN COLONIAL AREA 

found themselves closely connected with the outside world. The 
*'Pied Piper" call of the cities, sounding ever louder as western agri- 
cultural competition increased, has made many oblivious to the values 
of New England agriculture, so that it is relatively in an undeveloped 
state. The Colonial area has all the facilities for a big future in 
the open country. It has a splendid system of highways and it has 
better markets than any area in America. The soil is far from ex- 
hausted and is capable of more intensive cultivation. Agricultural 
colleges are relatively more numerous than elsewhere and are well 
equipped. 

The natural beauty of this area has been responsible for the an- 
nual pilgrimage of multitudes of pleasure-seekers to certain favored 
regions, a circumstance which has changed the entire social struc- 
ture of some rural communities. In many other localities the coming 
of the foreigner onto the land has created a new order in every 
phase of community life. Much has been heard of the abandoned 
farms, of isolation breeding degeneracy, of fields going fallow, of 
rural life tending toward the development of a backward American 
peasantry. The other side is told by L. H. Bailey in "The Country 
Life Movement." He looks forward to the dawn of a new day in 
agriculture of the like of which the world has never dreamed. He 
says : T have no fear of the abandoned farms. Little of the older 
land is worn out. Some of the best farm values now lie in the old 
east and south. In some cases farms are not being abandoned 
rapidly enough, but they will all be used in good time, and we shall 
need them." His prophecy has begun to be fulfilled. Evidences of 
reconstruction are seen in the newly developed friendly relationships 
between town and country; in the scientific reforestation and culti- 
vation of the soil ; in the effective activities of the agricultural agen- 
cies, and also in the very spirit of the farmers themselves. It is with 
the effect of these changes upon the social and especially upon the 
religious life that this study will deal. 

These counties also illustrate many of the problems which char- 
acteristically beset country churches in a changing social and eco- 
nomic order. Here we have the familiar story of declining influ- 
ence, of weak organizations insufficiently manned and poorly 
equipped, of a shifting pastorate meagerly paid, of fields over- 
churched and fields overlooked, of inadequate programs and a too 
easy acceptance of the limitations of a difficult situation. But the 
survey also reveals various roads of progress opening before the 
churches which are prepared to follow them and has examples to 
cite of churches which have found the way out. 

19 



Chapter II 
THE THREE COUNTIES 

TYPICAL NEW ENGLAND 

OF the three counties under consideration, Addison is the most 
typical of 'The Man with the Hoe." It is entirely rural in 
its make-up. Middlebury, the largest community and county 
seat, has less than 3,000 inhabitants and though it is the hub of the 
entire county and the center of its culture, industry and social life, 
it is still essentially a farmers' town. Wander along the main 
street, with its huge elms ; observe through their branches the proud, 
slender spire of the sturdy Colonial church keeping watch over the 
village from the brow of the hill ; stop a moment and count the sleepy 
farm horses waiting patiently at the line of old-time hitching posts 
by the Common. This is New England indeed. The traveler looking 
out over the county in its entirety is reminded of the old Shake- 
spearian stage with its three distinct levels. The Green Mountains 
and the heavily forested hills rise out of the east. The central level 
presents rolling lands, steep, stony hillsides and pastures within the 
limits of whose scraggly stone walls graze numerous cattle. The 
western level slopes gently down to the rich, fertile valley of Lake 
Champlain, whose farms are the pride of all New England. 

The early history of this region is marked by the many quarrels 
of Iroquois and Algonquins whose homes and favorite hunting 
grounds bordered the shores of Lake Champlain. The first white 
settlement was made in 1731 at Chimney Point, in what is now the 
town of Addison. The county remembers scenes played upon her 
stage by the Green Mountain boys and by such heroes as Ethan 
Allen and Commodore MacDonough. Vergennes was the site of the 
speedy building of the fleet with which MacDonough defeated the 
British at Plattsburgh in 1814. Tradition, history and romance 
cluster thick about this beautiful valley, through which the tides of 
war and trade and travel have surged back and forth for three hun- 
dred years. As industry succeeded conflict, the rough lands were 
made productive, and now for nearly a century this region has been 
a center of peaceful communities. 

Immigration did not start in earnest until after the signing of 

20 



THE THREE COUNTIES 

the Declaration of Independence. Then settlers began to pour into 
the valley, lured by the fertility of the soil and the possibilities for 
mills and industry afforded by the heavy forests and the splendid 
water power of Otter Creek. In the first census, taken in 1791, six 
years after the organization of Addison County, there were 6,489 




TYPICAL NEW ENGLAND 
Congregational Church at Middlebury, Vt. 



inhabitants. From that time up to 1880 the population steadily in- 
creased. Since then there has been, however, a decline of 30 per 
cent., checked only by the influx of French Canadians who have 
bought so many of the old farms. 

Addison County is primarily agricultural. The land is well 
drained by the several small rivers and streams which rise in the 
eastern hills and flow in a westerly direction to empty into Lake 

21 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

Champlain. Buckwheat flourishes and nature has wisely provided 
plenty of maple syrup, which, the nation knows, is second to none. 
Dairying- is the chief industry and quantities of milk are shipped to 
Boston and New York. Hay and forage are important money crops. 
This is the home of the Morgan horse, and the ''banner county" for 
the raising of Merino sheep. Farms occupy more than three-fourths 
of the land area. One of the chief handicaps to the county's growth 
and progress is its lack of adequate transportation facilities, there 
being only one railroad in its entire area. The summer tourist has 
done much to bring about the improvement of highways, which for 
the most part are very good, though 45 per cent, are common dirt 




WHERE BOSTON GETS ITS MILK 
The Sheffield Milk Station, Vergennes' largest industrial plant 

roads. Industry centers only in the larger communities and consists 
of marble-dressing and the manufacture of lumber and lumber 
products. 

So it is that Addison County makes its strongest appeal to the 
nature lover and the true countryman. It is a land of splendid tra- 
ditions, of mountains, forests and picturesque drives, and above all, 
of well developed farms. 

A CROSS SECTION OF AGRICULTURAL NEW YORK 

In the very heart of the Finger Lakes region in south-central New 
York is a high plateau cut by many picturesque gorges and glens. 
This is Tompkins County, with a land area of 476 square miles. 

22 



THE THREE COUNTIES 

Roughly speaking, there are two types of land in the county. On the 
south, the country is hilly but the tops of these hills are nearly level, 
though their slopes are steep and even precipitous as they drop down 
toward the deeply cut valleys. In the north the country is more 




A BEAUTY SPOT OF NEW ENGLAND 

gently rolling. Cayuga Lake occupies a deep gorge in the northwest 
and receives the stream drainage of the greater part of the area. At 
the head of the lake is Ithaca, a city of 17,000 inhabitants and the 
county seat from whose hilltops stretches a panorama of lake, hill and 
valley that once seen is never to be forgotten. Ten miles north of 

23 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

Ithaca are the famous Bridal Veil Falls, dropping 220 feet into a 
gorge which is more than a mile long. 

The district around the southern end of Cayuga Lake was the 
home of the Indians of the same name, one of the tribes of the 
Iroquois Confederation. There was some travel through the district 
before the Revolution but no permanent settlement. In 1779 Gen- 
eral Sullivan's expedition passed through here and camped on the 
present site of the city of Ithaca. 

In this most picturesque spot eleven men from Kingston, New 
York, began the first settlement in what is now Tompkins County. 
This was in 1789. The county was organized in 181 7 and named 



WHERE FARMERS ARE PROSPEROUS 
High School at Dryden in the best farming district of Tompkins County 

for Daniel Tompkins, a governor of the State. The early settlers 
came principally from counties of the lower Hudson Valley and 
some from New England and New Jersey. The maximum popula- 
tion was reached in the year 1840. Decline from that peak has been 
checked considerably by the recent immigration of western farmers, 
and also of a few foreigners. Most of the latter are engaged in in- 
dustry, though some are on farms, especially in the southern part of 
the county. These include Bohemians, Finns and Poles. 

From an agricultural standpoint, Tompkins County is a fair 
average of the counties of New York State, lying between the dairy- 
ing region of eastern New York, the fruit section of western New 
York and the grain and alfalfa section of central New York. The 

24 



THE THREE COUNTIES 

soil of the southern part of the county is not naturally fertile, but 
some of the foreigners have successfully demonstrated that under 
careful management it can produce good crops. The northern half 
of the county is richer by nature, its most important products being 
milk, hay, potatoes, buckwheat, fruit, eggs, corn, wheat and oats. 

Ithaca is the hub of the county. It furnishes a splendid market 
for farm products, particularly for fruits and vegetables. The bulk 
of the industrial activity of the county is carried on here, though the 
industries of Groton, Myers and Portland Point together employ 
about an equal number of workers. Ithaca is not only the center of 
business and educational interests but it is a city of homes. High 
above the city, overlooking Lake Cayuga, stands Cornell University 
on the most beautiful campus in America. This consists of nearly 
1,500 acres on which there are- thirty-five main buildings. Nearly 
6,000 students spend the college year here and the summer session 
and other courses enroll 3,000 more. Here is also the New York 
State College of Agriculture, which has an international reputation 
and has had a large influence on the agriculture of the county. 

A tourists' paradise 

At Glens Falls, the imposing front entrance to Warren County, 
someone remarked: "Have you traveled through our entire county? 
Then you have beheld scenery that is not surpassed this side of 
Switzerland." This section may well be called "The Tourist's 
Paradise" for here are the beauty of the Adirondacks and the charm 
of historic Lake George and of the smaller inland lakes with their 
wooded shores. 

The forest lands have made Warren County what it is, for they 
have suppHed timber for the finely developed industries of Glens 
Falls and the cities further south along the Hudson. It is to these 
same lands that the county turns for its future when the forests shall 
again have grown to usefulness. Agriculture will never be highly 
developed here, for the soil is sandy, and where there is fertility 
pine grows up in abundance, defying successful production of any 
other crop. Nature has been prodigal with beauty, but frugal in 
giving fertility to the soil, so that while the summer resort in- 
dustry flourishes and provides a not difficult means of livelihood, 
farming seems a continued struggle to wrest a mere existence from 
an obstinate land. 

Warren County was formed from Washington County in 181 3, 
and contains 876 square miles of rugged mountain and valley lands. 

25 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

In the southern half of the region there are productive level lands 
and here the dairying industry has become of prime importance. 
In the early days this was the hunting ground of the Iroquois In- 
dians of whose struggles vivid tales are told. History recounts the 
dramatic coming of the Half Moon, north, up the Hudson, and of 
Champlain, south, down the Sorel, the English following the one 
and the French the other. The war cries that rang through the 
forests as a result of the ensuing clash of interests, were not finally 
silenced until after the thirteen colonies became one nation. Until 
1789 this was frontier land, fit for forays, but not safe for settle- 




THE HUB OF THE COUNTY 
Picturesque and conservative old Chestertown, a favorite summer resort in Warren County 

ment. After the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the Governor of 
New York issued a proclamation welcoming settlers, and sturdy New 
Englanders began to migrate to the region until, in 1813, there were 
8,000 inhabitants. 

From the close of the Civil War to 1910 the population steadily 
increased. During the last decade every community except Glens 
Falls has, however, decreased considerably. The original stock is 
dying out. There is little immigration and scarcely any foreigners 
are found outside of Glens Falls. The county is handicapped by 
poor railroad facilities, though the Hudson Valley Electric Line 
connects Glens Falls with Lake George and Warrensburg and with 
the cities to the south. The Delaware and Hudson Railroad runs 
through the central part of the county terminating at North Creek. 

Highways are splendid. The main thoroughfare from New 
York City to Montreal passes through this area, and one may sit 
on the hotel veranda at Chestertown and see auto licenses from al- 
most every state in the Union, as the cars go by in endless procession. 

26 



THE THREE COUNTIES 

At Lake George is the throat of the great system through which all 
north-bound traffic must pass. 

The industrial development of Warren County belongs to Glens 
Falls, where there are at present sixty-eight establishments em- 
ploying more than 3,000 people. The rest of the county is largely 
holiday country, busy in summer and quiet in winter. Thirty per 
cent, of the population are engaged in lumbering, but the summer 
industry reigns supreme in this Adirondack region. 



27 



Chapter III 
THE CHURCHES 

ADDISON COUNTY 

THE Congregationalists organized the first church in Addison 
County in 1785 and before 1800 fifteen churches had been 
built. Detailed figures regarding the religious life of the 
county began with the Federal Census of 1890. At this time there 
were 7,014 church members of all denominations in a population of 



A REMINDER OF EARLY DAYS 
The Congregational Church at Shoreham, Vt., whose organization dates back to 1790 

22,277. In 1906 there were 7,565 members, of whom more than 50 
per cent, were Roman Catholics. At the end of the next decade the 
Roman Catholic membership had decreased somewhat and the total 
church membership numbered 7,581. During the last ten years, 
though the population of the county has decreased 6.7 per cent., the 
total Protestant membership has increased 14 per cent. 

At present there are forty active Protestant church organiza- 
tions, all but one of which were organized before 1881. Thirteen 
of these are located in villages of from 250 to 2,500 inhabitants and 

28 



THE CHURCHES 

the other twenty-seven are in smaller hamlets or in open country dis- 
tricts. All of the churches serve a population dependent in one' 
way or another upon farming. There are also six Roman Catholic 
churches, the congregations of which exceed the total Protestant 
church membership. There is one Protestant church for every 467 
people. Except in one or two villages, there is little overchurching, 
and there is very little territory which is not included within the 
parish area of some church. All of the organizations own their 
church buildings, which have an average value of $15,154 for 
village churches and $7,101 for country churches. All of the village 
and nineteen of the country churches own parsonages which they 
endeavor to keep occupied. Church property is for the most part 
in splendid condition. 

Thirty-one pastors serve these Protestant churches, five of whom 
carry on some other occupation in addition to the ministry. One 
church has no regular pastor but is served at present by a student. 
Every village has a resident pastor and three-fourths of all the 
churches have pastors resident within their parishes, an unusually 
good showing. Most of the pastors receive salaries which range 
from $1,250 to $1,450, if $250 be added to the cash salary as the 
estimated yearly value of a free parsonage when provided. The 
maximum salary is $2,050 and the minimum is $750. The average is 
$1,404 for those giving full time to the ministry and $1,031 for those 
also carrying on some other occupation. Here as elsewhere pastoral 
changes are frequent. Twenty-nine churches have changed pastors 
every three years or oftener. Sixteen pastors, or 42 per cent, of 
the total number, report that they have been in their present parishes 
one year or less. 

The total membership of the forty churches is 3,689, of which 
number 75 per cent, are reported resident and active. Only 19 per 
cent, are under twenty-one years of age. Addison County's churches 
are above the average for a rural county in the proportion of those 
having systematic financial methods. Twenty-six churches budget 
all the money that they raise and five others use a budget system 
in raising money for local expenses. The average per capita contri- 
bution for the entire county is $17.61 — $17.15 for village and $18.38 
for open country churches. 

Foreigners are reported residing in the parishes of twenty-eight 
churches, though only in one community has the Protestant 
church any foreign members. Thirty-seven churches maintain 
Sunday schools, with a total enrollment equal to only 58 per cent, of 
the total church membership. On a typical Sunday a little more than 

29 




CHURCH AND COMMUNITY MAP 



30 




OF ADDISON COUNTY, VERMONT 



31 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

one-half of the entire enrollment attends. The churches do not 
suffer from lack of services. Only three hold less than four services 
a month. In only two communities are union services held. 

Addison County's churches are facing grave problems of small 
memberships, declining attendance, widespread indifference and a 
lack of united effort. 




TRUE TO ARCHITECTURAL TYPE 
The Congregational Church at Cornwall, Vt. 



TOMPKINS COUNTY 

In Tompkins County there are at present, outside of Ithaca, fifty- 
seven active Protestant churches, one mission, one non-denomina- 
tional organization at the George Junior Republic, one inactive 
church, four separate Sunday schools, a Spiritualist organization 
and four Roman Catholic churches with 700 or 800 members. 

Religious activities began here at an early date. The circuit 
riders of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the pastors of the 
Baptist, Dutch Reformed and Presbyterian denominations were 
early on the ground. In many cases the establishment of churches 
antedated township organization. Methodism, now the largest de- 
nomination in the county, struck root in 1797 when the first church 
was organized at Lansingville. Thirty-three other churches had 
their beginnings during the opening decades of the last century. 
Since the Civil War church organization has proceeded very slowly. 

Of the fifty-seven Protestant churches twenty-two are in villages 

Z2 



THE CHURCHES 

and thirty-five in hamlets or open country. Church equipment is 
above the average. There are more buildings with more than one 
room than is usual and better social equipment than is found in 
the average county, but the most effective use has not been made 
of this equipment. 

Thirteen villages and sixteen country churches use the budget 
system for raising all moneys. Thirty-five churches make an an- 
nual every member canvass. The per capita contributions of village 
and country churches are $20.36 and $17.91 respectively. The 
county average is $19.39. 

There are thirty-five pastors in Tompkins County. Twenty-five 
churches have pastors resident in their parishes. Twenty-eight 
churches have non-resident pastors and four are at present pastor- 
less. Only eight of the twenty-eight communities have full-time 
resident pastors. Salaries are exceedingly low, the average being 
only $1,177.56, estimating the cash value of a free parsonage, 
where provided, at $250 a year. The average minister receives some- 
what more than this mathematical average but usually not in excess 
of $1,100 or $1,200 and free use of a house or its equivalent. 

Most pastors regard the future of their congregation as promis- 
ing. They all recognize, however, serious problems, among them 
the declining and changing population, the increase in the number 
of pleasure cars, the lack of resident ministers and of leadership 
and cooperation in and among the churches, the small number of 
young people, the slowly increasing foreign population and the ex- 
isting overchurched conditions. 

WARREN COUNTY 

Warren County has in winter one church to every 354 inhabitants 
and in the vacation season one church to every 700 inhabitants. This 
fact furnishes the problem that is foremost in the religious life of 
the county. 

The first religious services in the county were held by a chaplain 
of the English Army which was encamped along the shores of Lake 
George, in September, 1775. The earliest permanent settlers were 
Friends and their first church at Bay Road dates back to 1785. At 
present there are forty-seven Protestant churches and seven Roman 
Catholic churches in the county outside of Glens Falls. There are 
also two non-Evangelical organizations, three missions, one unor- 
ganized church, four preaching points and Sunday schools, four 
separate Sunday schools, seven inactive and seasonal churches and 

33 




CHURCH AND COMMUNITY MAP 



34 



•Scale of Miles 




OF TOMPKINS COUNTY, N. Y. 



35 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

nine abandoned churches. Twenty of the forty-seven organized 
Protestant churches are in villages and twenty-seven are country 
churches. Half of the total number depend to a greater or less extent 
on the summer traffic. Nine different denominations are represented, 
the largest number of churches, fifteen, belonging to the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. There are eleven communities having one church 
each. In the larger centers there is, however, considerable over- 
lapping of parishes, and in one case a serious overlapping of two 
parishes of the same denomination. Much territory is not included 
within the parish of any church, especially among the mountains 
in the western part of the county. The farms here are scattered 
and isolated. The land yields only enough for the farmers' needs 
and the drifts in winter prevent traveling. It was said that two 
entire townships were absolutely neglected during the winter of 
1920 and that no services of any kind were held. 



HOW THE 


TYPICAL DOLLAR IS RAISED 


ADDISON 


WARREN TOMPKINS 


COUNTY 


COUNTY COUNTY 


CO LLECTION^ ^^^ 


COLLECTION 


11 ~P'''\ ^^^^^ 


COLLECTION 


^^^^^ ENDOWMENT ^////hr ^^^^k 


/u \. ^^^H^^ 


.30. 


^^^^ iMISCELLANEOysM^ ^^^^ 


ENDOWMENT & Ih^^^^^B 


/ 


^B ■''¥! m^^ 


JM^^^^^^B 


^^^^^^^■SUBSCRIPTION V//////lJ^/^ff^^^^^^^ 


^^ ^ llill^^^V 


\^^^^^^^^^^V '^0 Ijfl^^^^^^^^^CRIPTION 


^^^^^^^^CRIPTION 


^^^ ^^^" 


^^■■^63 


ENDOWMENT & 




MISCELLANEOUS 




.30 



CHART I 



All but six of the churches are in good repair, although thirty-one 
are still heated by stoves and twenty-four are lighted by oil lamps. 
Thirty-five churches are of the traditional one-room type, a preaching 
auditorium and nothing more. Thirty church buildings are valued 
at $2,500 or less, and only three at more than $10,000. 

Twenty-one churches use a budget system and twenty-five con- 
duct annual every-member canvasses. At least one-third of the 
organizations may be said to be without any organized financial 
system, depending upon collections and special appeals for their 
support. Twelve churches receive home mission aid amounting in all 
to $2,300, $800 of which is received by one circuit, covering a large 

36 



THE CHURCHES 



TcKxtt'cf 



05*if^r\ / 



r^ 



i-Oi 




SCAkC 4 VlUS 



— •—•— County Bounder^ 
^^^"•^ Communit*^ Boundofu 
~"'""'"'*~W»ighborhood Boundary 
^■""""^^ Poriih Beundartj 

... •— Parish X Church Conntctiiw Lin* 

— ~~— Circuit df P«|t»r 



KEY AND SYMBOLS 

• Hamlet 
9 Villaqts 
^) Town - 9v«r 5,000 
a Church -Whit* 
B Church -C«ler*d 

□ Church -Whit* witfc Pait*r'« Ruidanec 
a Church -Ctlartd.tMth Pattort RctidanM 



^^ 



Circuit 



4 Po«tor> Rfsldfnc* without Churth-M*ite 
4 Paiter'5 Residcnc* without Church Colortd 
■ Abandoned Church. Q In&ctire Church 
Q] Sunday Sch«*l without Church -Whit« 
JB Sundaij School without Church -Colortd 
H Church u<in^ School £ld j. 



CHURCH AND COMMUNITY MAP OF WARREN COUNTY, N. Y. 



37 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

and scattered field which is largely mission territory. The per capita 
contributions for village and country churches are $25.44 and $22.96 
respectively. For the county as a whole, it is estimated, however, 
that 30 per cent, of the total receipts are obtained from gifts of 
summer people and from miscellaneous sources. 

The forty-seven churches command the service (in whole, or in 
part) of twenty-six pastors, five of whom also follow other occupa- 
tions. Salaries run generally from $1,250 to $1,500. There are no 
large circuits and only one pastor serves more than three points. 

The total enrollment is 2,480. The average active membership 
for village churches is sixty-seven, for country churches only seven- 
teen. As the total population is 15,350, this means that only 16 
per cent, of the inhabitants are Protestant church members. Only 
thirty-six of the forty-seven churches conduct Sunday schools, and 
these have a total enrollment of 1,880, or an average of fifty -two 
per school. 

Every year Warren County grows more popular as a summer 
resort. Every year Glens Falls increases in wealth, industry and 
community progressiveness. Affairs are in no way at a standstill. 
The land is being extensively reforested. Educational methods are 
being improved, and between town and country a better, more 
friendly feeling is rapidly growing. There is less suspicion and 
more of a spirit of cooperation all along the line. There are no 
greater tasks to be accomplished than those presented by the churches 
of the county today. If the county boasted only of beauty these 
problems might never be unraveled, but fortunately it has also brains 
and a well remembered tradition. 



38 



Chapter IV 
SOCIAL AGENCIES AND ACTIVITIES 

IN Addison County, as in nearly every section of America today, 
a spirit of unrest is abroad. People are not satisfied with things 
as they were. There is desire for better schools, better farms, 
better business conditions. As in other sections of the Colonial area, 
schools were among the county's first institutions. Since 1845 the 




TRANSPORTATION DE LUXE 

Part of the caravan that regularly carries the children of the Consolidated School at 
New Haven, Vt., to and from their lessons 

State of Vermont has seven times made important modifications in 
its system of school administration, the present code having been in 
effect only six years. Substantial progress toward improvement in 
educational methods has been made on the basis of extensive surveys 
under the best professional supervision. In Addison County there is 
as yet only one consolidated school. There are two junior-senior 
high-schools, in one of which forty-eight of the 105 pupils enrolled 
arc non-resident. At Vergennes is located an Industrial school in 
which there are nearly 300 pupils. Within the county there are no 
welfare or benevolent institutions or agencies, nor is there a county 

39 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

health or nursing association. Plans are under way for a new count}^ 
hospital, the funds for which have already been raised. 

In twenty-one of the twenty-six communities there are free 
public libraries. Newspapers are published in four communities. 
As for recreational life, little has been done outside of two or three 
of the larger centers to meet the demand. Six communities have 
dance-halls, four have moving-pictures, four have organized athletics, 
seven have pool-rooms and there are three bands and three orchestras. 
Twenty-one lodges in the county have a combined membership of 
1,741 and are a chief factor in the promotion of social life. Other 
societies number nineteen and include nine women's clubs, a gun 




QUITE HAPPY, THANK YOU ! 

The playground at Bristol, Vt., is only one of many boons conferred by the Community 

Club 

club, the Cedar Lake Boys' Club, a business men's club, the Fort- 
nightly Club, four D. A. R. societies, a W. C. T. U. and a country 
club. There are fourteen Granges whose memberships total 1,420, 
and which are active socially besides taking the lead in aiding eco- 
nomic development. In only three communities is the Church con- 
sidered a factor in supplying recreational activity. In four-fifths 
of the communities the presence of leaders is recognized, although 
in the majority community spirit is not in evidence. Middlebury 
and Bristol have proved the worth of "getting together" socially 
and religiously and in business life, but the more rural districts still 
show the need of cooperation, several inactive community clubs being 
an evidence of this. 

40 



SOCIAL AGENCIES AND ACTIVITIES 

Tompkins County presents a marked contrast in that it is splen- 
didly organized. The Grange and the Farm and Home Bureaus are 
the leading farmers' organizations. There are eighteen Granges 
with 2,200 members. Half of them own their halls. The County 
Farm Bureau has been largely instrumental in organizing the Dairy- 
men's League, the County Sheep Growers' Association, the Guernsey 
Club, the Holstein Club and the Market Gardeners' Association, and 
is of constant assistance in their work. The County Home Bureau 
has 900 members and is developing interest in many directions, one 
being the travelling libraries in rural communities. It cooperates 
with the Red Cross in encouraging health work and hot lunches in 
schools, and is working with some of the churches. Its program 
covers a wide range of activities, including household management, 
recreation and civics, and does for the rural home what the Farm 
Bureau does for the farm. 

Of twenty-eight rural communities in Tompkins County all but 
one report one or more leaders. Not all of them, however, have as 
yet been able to unite their localities so that they possess that in- 
tangible but valuable quality known as community spirit. This seems 
to be present in only fourteen communities. The county has an 
excellent school system. The Red Cross in 1920 had 8,685 members, 
of whom 3,270 were in rural centers. 

There are a Tuberculosis Sanitarium in the county and a nurse 
who works throughout the area in locating cases and assisting in 
their treatment. A summer Preventorium devoted to the building 
up of under-developed children is at South Lansing. Ithaca has an 
endowed children's home. The Ithaca Women's Clubs have recently 
purchased a large residence in the heart of the city which has been 
converted into a real Community House. Many rural women belong 
to this Federation and the County Home Bureau and W. C. T. U. 
use the building constantly. The George Junior Republic at Freeville 
has attracted nation-wide attention by its successful attempt to teach 
self-government, self-control and the dignity of labor to young 
people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one, who otherwise 
might remain useless members of society. It is financed by fees and 
gifts and is one of the most remarkable industrial and educational 
communities in the country. There is also a well kept County Home. 
A State Home for dependent families is being erected by the State 
Odd Fellows Lodge. 

Even Calf Clubs and Farm Bureaus furnish social life for their 
members to an unusual degree in this county. Commercial amuse- 
ments center largely at Ithaca. Only four communities have moving- 

41 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

picture theaters, and there are but seven pool-rooms. Dancing seems 
to be the most popular form of recreation. Thirty-one lodges have 
2,288 members and are very active. The W. C. T. U. has twenty- 
five local Unions and 1,500 members. It has also ten young people's 
branches with 107 members. There are sixty-one other societies 
and clubs having more than 2,700 members, showing that rural 
Tompkins County is not lacking in varied social activities. Every 
community has one or more places for recreation and one or more 
social organizations, but in most cases there is no definite plan for 
promoting this phase of community life. 

In Warren County there is no influence for social development 
greater than that of the Farm Bureau. Not only does it aid in 




DOES IT PAY TO ADVERTISE 



agricultural enterprise but it also provides many social occasions, 
conducts a song school and holds a large number of successful 
community meetings. Less than half of the twenty-eight communi- 
ties acknowledge the presence of community spirit, developed chiefly 
by the summer population, the Farm Bureau, the churches and the 
schools. Nineteen communities report leaders. Social life is plenti- 
ful in summer, but sadly lacking at other times of the year. Deer 
hunting is the chief sport in the fall. There are only three Granges 
and only thirteen active Lodges, although their membership numbers 
nearly 2,000. In only four communities is the church mentioned as 
a factor in social activity. Summer hotels are used for occasional 
dances and parties. Now and then a lodge-hall, school or town-hall 
will be found serving as a social gathering place, but in winter social 

42 



SOCIAL AGENCIES AND ACTIVITIES 

activities are scarce indeed. Seven communities have halls for 
dancing, six have moving-picture theaters, and six have pool-rooms. 
Three communities have organized athletics and there is one bowling- 
alley. 

Schools in the rural districts are generally of the one-room type, 
lacking in modern equipment. At Silver Bay the conference build- 
ings are used in winter by a Preparatory School for Boys, the en- 
rollment of which is seventy-five. Bolton has a private school for 
girls with fifty pupils. There are libraries in only six of the twenty- 
eight communities. There is only one newspaper published outside 
of Glens Falls, the County Weekly at Warrensburg. 

Health work is well organized at Glens Falls and more is being 
done each year among the rural inhabitants. The Warren County 
Committee for Prevention of Tuberculosis is conducting vital work 
and organizing educational activities. A commendable program has 
recently been adopted, and there are hopes for a fresh-air camp for 
under-nourished children. At Glens Falls is located the tri-county 
Blind Home which cares for patients of Warren, Washington and 
Saratoga counties. The Red Cross, since the War, is directing its 
efforts toward aiding ex-service men throughout the county. The 
county has a poor farm located at Warrensburg and consisting of 
about 200 acres. The Associated Charities direct their attention 
chiefly to Glens Falls, except on urgent call from outside. 

Of the three counties under consideration, Tompkins alone is ade- 
quately organized to meet the needs of the health and the social and 
recreational life of its people. Addison County has only two well 
organized communities and Warren County, outside of Glens Falls, 
is more or less indifferent to the need of organized endeavor for 
public welfare. 



43 



Chapter V 
FOLK DEPLETION AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES 

VITAL changes have taken place within the rural regions of 
the Colonial area during the last decade. The 1920 census 
shows that every state in New England except Massachusetts 
has declined considerably in rural population, and even in Massachu- 
setts it is likely that the farming districts have lost population. Rural 
New York State reports a decline of 6.9 per cent, and the Vermont 
figures show a loss of 5.7 per cent. Of the three counties under 
consideration Warren County has declined the most rapidly, there 
being hardly any immigration and little foreign influx outside of 
Glens Falls. The death-rate exceeds the birth-rate and young people 
still continue to flock to the cities. Warren County reports a decrease 
of nearly 12 per cent, in rural population, while Tompkins County 
declined 1 1 per cent, and Addison 7 per cent, in the last census period. 
For the entire Colonial area there was a decrease in the number 
of farms of 11 per cent, for the last decade as against a decrease of 
only 2 per cent, during the preceding ten years. New York and 
Vermont reported a decrease approximating the average for the area. 
In Addison, Tompkins and Warren counties the loss in the number 
of farms was from 11 to 15 per cent., there being 122,874 acres less 
in farms in the three counties today than a decade ago. On the 
other hand, wherever there is industrial growth there has been in- 
crease in population. Ithaca increased one-seventh and Glens Falls 
nearly one-tenth during the last ten years, the rate of growth having 
been somewhat accelerated in Ithaca and considerably retarded in 
Glens Falls as compared with the previous decade. Five agricultural 
villages in the three counties which have some industrial interests 
are growing ; but, of the seven hill towns of Addison County only 
one increased in population during the decade a^d that only slightly 
because of increased lumber industry. Thirteen of the sixteen valley 
towns in the same county declined. The great cityward surge has 
continued now for more than two centuries. The people of the coun- 
try districts have answered the call of industry and the city. Migra- 
tion has far exceeded normal proportions. 

The agricultural colleges are endeavoring to give back to the 

44 



FOLK DEPLETION AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES 

country its share of efficient workmen. Every year sincere students 
of the soil, a surprising number of them city born and bred, are 
turning from the crowd toward what they are sure is a better future 
in the open country. There is an increasing number of more pro- 
gressive farmers, husbandmen indeed, who have achieved agricul- 
tural success and have by wise, fair methods checked migration from 
their farms. For example, there is a successful farm in the foothills 
of the Berkshires, which has been in the hands of the same family 
for three generations. The family consists of father, mother and 
two sons, both of whom are now young men. The father, having 
been elected a Representative to the Legislature, and needing more 
free time to fulfill his political duties, wisely placed his farm in the 




AN UP-TO-DATE FARMER 
The racing car brings the advantages of the city within easy reach of the farm 

hands of his two sons and gave them the complete management of it. 
Unlike too many farmers, he has always paid his boys a generous 
sum each week, and under the new arrangement he raised their 
salaries. In addition, he gave them money with which to buy an 
automobile for their own use. They bought a racing car. They 
know that there are no city wages higher than their own, for they 
have been there to find out. If they wish to enjoy what advantages 
the city offers, the racer is at their service; but as a matter of fact 
they do not care for city life. Their land is fertile ; their crops are 
the pride of the community. The sense of ownership and the fact 
that they hold responsible positions have kept these boys contented 
on the farm. Though both are less than twenty-five years of age, 
they are already well established in a business that pays. 

45 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

Successful experiments of the kind described may help to check 
the exodus from the more productive lowlands. In the hills, on the 
other hand, farming is beset with many difficulties, and there de- 
pletion is still going on and will doubtless continue. In the eastern 
half of Addison County, for example, the seven hill towns previously 
referred to, whose total population now numbers only 3,245, declined 



WHERE EDUCATION LAGS 
A school in the abandoned farm region in the hills o£ Vermont 

more than three times as rapidly as the valley towns of the same 
county during the last ten years. Here the farms are usually too 
small for modern methods of cultivation. Many are overgrown with 
stubble or consist of run-out land, where the only hope of future 
prosperity lies in reforestation. Foreigners have not been attracted 
by them. Young people are few and the ambitious have long ago 
departed. Schools are inadequately equipped. No lodges are active 
and no social organizations make any consistent efforts to bring 
people together even to talk things over. Grange suppers and 

46 



FOLK DEPLETION AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES 

occasional dances alone break the monotony of life in the hills. The 
churches are weak and are declining rapidly in membership, interest 
and attendance. Of the ten hill-town churches, just one (a Fed- 
erated church) has gained in members during the last decade. Al- 
though none are pastorless at present, seven of them have each had 
five or more pastors during the last ten years. Not one of them 
has retained the same pastor for that length of time while three have 
had eight and one has had ten pastors during the decade. 

One would suppose that the salaries of pastors in the larger, more 
thrifty valley churches would greatly exceed those paid by these 
weak and declining hill-town churches. The margin of advantage 
is, however, only lo per cent. The average salary paid to the hill 
church pastor is $1,203 ^^^ to the valley church pastor $1,324, v/hile 
the average for the entire county is only $1,321. It is interesting 
to note that the average annual per capita contribution toward 
salaries is larger in hill churches than in valley churches, $15.70 as 
compared with $12.23. The average church devotes more than three- 
fourths of its total income to its pastor's salary, giving only 12 per 
cent, for benevolences, and has an average annual per capita con- 
tribution for all purposes of $20.04. ^^ this matter of per capita 
giving for all church purposes the hill churches, with an average of 
$22.31, have again a marked advantage over the valley churches in 
which the average is only $16.77, which seems to indicate that the 
greater the struggle to live the greater the sacrifice a church's mem- 
bership will make. 

In the relative frequency of churches there is not much difference 
between the two sections. There is one church for every 467 persons 
in the hill communities and for every 510 persons in the valley 
communities. 

Only two of the hill churches are self-supporting, the other eight 
receiving Home Mission aid to the total amount of $1,487, or an 
average of $186 per church. Half of these churches have active 
memberships of twelve or less and only one church (Federated) 
has more than fifty active members. The membership of all ten 
churches includes 108 families, four-fifths of whom live in purely 
rural districts. Only forty-eight boys and girls are on the rolls and 
four churches report no young people whatever. During last year 
two churches gained twelve members, four others lost seventeen and 
four remained stationary. There are no organizations for men, boys 
or girls in these ten churches, though in nine of them the Ladies' 
Aids are as usual quite active. As to the future there seems to be 
little hope. Pastors and leading laymen regard indifference and 

47 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

isolation as their chief problems. Where leadership is lacking, there 
is always a lack of incentive to follow. Where there are few young 
people, the older people inevitably lack ambition and social advan- 
tages mean little. Religion becomes a task which often is left 
undone. So much for the hill towns. 

A different situation is found on a visit to five agricultural 
communities, three in Addison and one in each of the New York 
counties, which are developing not only along agricultural but also 
along industrial lines. Their combined population is about one- 
fourth of the total rural population of the three counties and includes 
more than 800 foreigners. During the last decade they have in- 
creased in population 5 per cent. One thousand seven hundred and 
twenty-five people are employed in the several industrial plants, 
1,050 of them in one community. All five of these more enterprising 
communities have adequate leadership and all but one manifest con- 
siderable community spirit. Each according to its make-up is well 
organized in its social, religious and economic life. 

In one community, life revolves principally around the Corona 
Typewriter Corporation, which maintains an employees' club, a band 
and a gymnasium. Organized athletics are conducted by the cor- 
poration which is to employ a paid director of sports who will also 
serve the schools and townspeople. A new school has recently been 
built in which community rooms are an important factor. In another 
community, lodge activities are most prominent. Still another is domi- 
nated by the college close at hand, and this community is not only the 
county seat and chief shipping point but is the hub of its entire county. 
Social life is not wanting and the women's clubs have been a moving 
power in bringing about a splendid cooperative spirit in the village. 
Another community, lying in a deep valley in the Green Mountains, 
has an organization of men of which it may well be proud. Its 
members are business and church men and through their efforts 
much civic improvement has been made possible. A park, which 
is also a community playground, in the center of the village is one 
evidence of their successful, unselfish endeavor. The fifth com- 
munity is the smallest city in the United States and the third oldest 
in New England. A very typical Vermont village is this, with fine 
ideals and worthy traditions, but not easily adapted to change. The 
beautiful old buildings stand in striking contrast to the fine new 
library on the main street and very clearly typify the problem which 
is slowly being solved here, a struggle between the old and the new, 
evidenced not only in its industrial and social but more especially 

48 



FOLK DEPLETION AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES 

in its religious life. The D. A. R. and women's clubs are influential 
and the lodge and Grange have also large memberships. 

The churches in these five communities are a good dear above the 
average in their organizations. There are twenty churches, which 
are surely too many, though three- fourths of them have more than 
fifty members each. Including five Roman Catholic churches, there 
is one church for every 491 persons in these communities. During 
the last decade, 50 per cent, of the Protestant churches have in- 
creased considerably in membership, and last year nine churches 
made a net gain. Salaries paid to pastors show the same unfair, 
low average as in all the communities in the three counties. The 
maximum salary is only $1,800 and the average salary only $1,178, 
a pitifully low sum for a thriving community to expect any self- 
respecting family to live on in these days of high prices. Each of 
the twenty churches has a resident pastor, in fifteen cases on full time 
and in five instances serving two points each. With fewer churches 
memberships might be strengthened sufficiently to pay the pastors 
adequate salaries. 

These contrasts already shown between the less favored hill 
towns and those more fortunate agriculturally and industrially in- 
dicate the effects which these economic factors have upon church 
and community life. What such a situation means in the aggregate 
can be conceived only through a glimpse at the whole picture. 

There are in the three counties eighty-two well-defined communi- 
ties, and 93 per cent, of them are declining in population. Sixteen 
communities have populations of 200 or less. Twenty report that 
there are no leaders among them, and more than half show no 
evidence of community spirit. But if community life has been 
undermined by depletion, religious life is threatened with extinction. 
Of the 144 churches in the three counties, 61 per cent, have remained 
at a standstill or declined in membership during the last ten years. 
More than one-fourth of them have now twenty-five members or 
less; two-thirds have fifty members or less. Addison County has 
suffered the largest loss in church membership during the past year. 
Of its forty churches eleven gained eighty-five members, but fifteen 
churches lost ninety-nine members and fourteen churches remained 
stationary. That is to say, nearly three-fourths of the county's 
churches are declining or are barely holding their own, and there was 
a net loss of fourteen members from all churches during the year. 

In view of the abandoned farms, it is not surprising to find that 
there are thirty abandoned church buildings in the three counties. 
Some have been closed because no members were left in the parish, 

49 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

some because of nearness to the city or to a stronger church of the 
same denomination, others simply for lack of support and interest. 
Some of these abandoned churches are being used as lodge or grange 
halls, but many of them seem to be waiting. For what? Perhaps 
till the time when the community house ceases to be a dream. There 
are church organizations everywhere with inadequate equipment for 
any sort of recreational program. With a little renovating and 
rearrangement some of the abandoned church buildings might well 
fill the need of a real ''meeting house" where neighbors should 
become acquainted. 



THE CHURCHES AND THEIR MEMBERSHIPS 



94 

Churches 



30 

Churches 



11 

Churches 



9 

Churches 



O m 



Under 
50 



Over 
150 



50-100 100-150 

MEMBERSHIP 
'Two-thirds of the churches have less than 50 members 



CHART II 



Besides the abandoned churches, there are the inactive churches. 
There are seven in Warren County whose organizations are still 
intact, though no services are held in them except possibly in summer. 
Members of the majority of these attend the services of other de- 
nominations during the winter or until they can procure regular 
pastors. They are all in communities too small to support more 
churches than are now holding services, but no organized effort is 
made to have their members regularly support the churches which 
they have taken to attending. The result is that no sooner have 
they become interested in the services of other churches than their 
own churches are once more opened for the summer. These, how- 
ever, seldom have regular pastors. Usually they are served by a 

50 



FOLK DEPLETION AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES 

student supply, which comes and goes and serves only to keep alive 
the smoldering fire of denominational loyalty. 



GAIN AND LOSS IN MEMBERSHIP 

SUMMER RESORT AND INDUSTRIAL COMMUNITY CHURCHES 



SUMMER RESORT 
CHURCHES 



INDUSTRIAL COMMUNITY 
CHURCHES 




CHART III 



A situation of this kind is indefensible from any point of view. 
In all instances where there are inactive churches, there are other 



GAIN AND LOSS IN MEMBERSHIP 

AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY CHURCHES 



13% 
REMAINED 
STATIONARY 



MORE FAVORED 
COMMUNITIES 



LESS FAVORED 
COMMUNITIES 




39% 
•LOST 



CHART IV 



churches active throughout the year. The only hope of the small, 
weak churches in Warren County is in united effort, not only for a 
few months during the winter but throughout the year; not in a 

51 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

half-hearted, indifferent attendance, but in a genuine spirit of 
cooperative rehgious enthusiasm. If denominationalism ceased to 
run so high there might be many a successful community church like 
that at Chestertown, and the buildings closed thereby would be 
available for additional equipment in carrying out a real community 
church program, so much needed in Warren County. Church ad- 
ministrators carry a heavy responsibility in so far as they perpetuate 
this situation or even allow it to drag along. 

Within rural Glens Falls there are five abandoned churches, and 
the question arises : "What is the relation of a growing city to its 
surrounding area? What is its killing range vs. its service range?" 

Cities as a rule are still quite indifferent as to the services just 
outside their limits. Until recently, there has been little cooperation 
of any sort between Glens Falls and the outlying country. On the 
other hand, Ithaca, with her cooperative agencies well established 
and her fine roads leading out in all directions into the rural dis- 
tricts, has related herself in a friendly and very helpful way to the 
entire county. Striking contrasts have been brought to light by the 
survey of the areas surrounding these two busy industrial centers, 
not only in their social but especially in their religious life. 

Within a six-mile radius of Ithaca there is just one abandoned 
church. There are six well organized churches, five of which are of 
Methodist and one of Baptist denomination. Though pastorates 
have been short during the last ten years none of these churches is 
at present pastorless and none is receiving home mission aid. Mem- 
berships are the average size for the county, only one church having 
less than fifty members. The Sunday school enrollment equals 95 
per cent, of the total resident membership. This situation is, how- 
from farm homes. These rural churches are organized on a sound 
financial basis. All but one use a budget system and all hold annual 
every-member canvasses for the systematic raising of funds. A net 
gain of six members was made by three churches during last year. 
Though their programs are meager, three have the use of stereopti- 
cons occasionally and one church reports special meetings with 
speakers from the Agricultural College. None of the churches has 
organizations for men, boys or girls, although these constitute 53 
per cent, of the total church roll, and 55 per cent, of the pupils are 
ever, not unusual in the three counties, all of which are negligent 
in organizing church social life for their people. Rural Ithaca at 
least names the church as its main institution and boasts of com- 
munity spirit and cooperation among its people. It is evident that 
Ithaca is not "living unto herself alone." We find her banks, stores, 

52 



FOLK DEPLETION AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES 

schools, and all her cooperative forces giving aid to the rural area, 
furnishing a market for its product, capital for its agricultural en- 
terprises, and welcome to its citizens. 

Glens Falls presents a different situation. The city, unlike Ithaca, 
is situated at the very southeast corner of the county and belongs 
partly in other counties. Agriculturally, Warren County has been 
unable to furnish any great supply for the city. She has given 
timber, and in time will give it again. She has also given citizens 
to the industries in Glens Falls. It is, however, only recently that 
this busy, industrial, growing city has been moved to give anything 
back to the rural areas, and it is the Church which has just seen the 
needs of the neglected fringe of the city. In the rural area about 
Glens Falls is a good farming district in which more than i,ooo 
people are resident. There are just three organized churches, all 
of which are at present very weak and irregular in their activities. 
There is no resident regular pastor in the entire area, but services 
are held at seven points, and during the last year the associate 
pastor of the Glens Falls Presbyterian Church has held services 
every Sunday at as many points as possible. 

In one parish there are more than forty children, but only a 
dozen attend Sunday school. Two of the leading church members 
are at present holding mission study classes and endeavoring to keep 
the organization together. One of them remarked : "We need a 
young pastor and a regular Sunday school superintendent, who can 
wake up the young people." Several of these points — an unorgan- 
ized church, the County Line Mission, etc. — have been served by 
"anyone who would come." At one point midweek services are 
very successfully carried on. Much unselfish service has been ren- 
dered in the entire area by laymen and interested neighboring pas- 
tors. It is, however, the vision of the Presbyterian church at Glens 
Falls that has instituted "the larger parish" plan which will reopen 
some of these weak, struggling churches, put them on a systematic 
basis and place a regular pastor in the area. The type of pastor 
needed is one who will be disinterested denominationally and will 
really get acquainted with the people, not only from a religious but 
from a social point of view. 

The foregoing pages point to the development of a closer co- 
operation in mutual interest and understanding between farm and 
community, between religion and society, between town and country. 
The farmer will perhaps succeed in inducing his sons and daughters 
to remain willingly on the farm, but the churches also have their 
part to play in interesting these boys and girls in live programs and 

53 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

dynamic recreational activities as well as in preaching sermons to 
them on Sundays. With the activities of the churches the life of 
the rural community rises or falls. It must be expected that those 
fitted to forward industrial activities will go where industry is ; 
but there are others who might succeed in the country and who 
would lose the urge of the city if some of the advantages offered 
by the city were brought to them in the country. Above all other 
agencies the Church is best fitted to assume leadership in the task 
of revitalizing the community life of rural America, 



54 



Chapter VI 
FOREIGNERS ON THE LAND 

FOREIGNERS are found in all but nine of the communities 
of Addison and Tompkins counties. Thirty-one per cent, of 
the urban and 19 per cent, of the rural populations of the 
three counties are foreign-born or of immediate foreign extraction. 
Of the total number of foreigners in the rural areas, 45 per cent. 
are in Addison, 33 per cent, are in Tompkins and 22 per cent, are 
in Warren County. In the last county they are chiefly engaged in 
the garnet mines at North River or are resident in Graphite, where 
mines were formerly in operation. There are hardly any foreigners 
on the farms of Warren County. 

Whether the foreigners are engaged on the farms or are indus- 
trially employed, their presence raises serious problems in religion, 
society and education. Little has been done in the way of American- 
ization outside the larger centers. Class distinction is strong. The 
majority of churches report that the foreigners attend the Roman 
Catholic church "if any," which seems to indicate a general indiffer- 
ence toward this incoming population and little intelligent effort to 
reach it. These foreigners have, however, done much toward bring- 
ing rural life back to its own, economically if not socially, and among 
them are many scientific farmers. 

In a certain community in Massachusetts are two farms side by 
side. One is owned by a typical American and the other by a 
Polish peasant farmer. The two are equally productive at the 
present time. The Polish farmer landed in America only six years 
ago. He worked for two years on the American's farm. He saved 
money and he observed the methods used by the American, who 
has lived all his life here. Today this Pole owns his own farm, fills 
his own silo, cuts his own tobacco, for which he gets prices envied 
by his American neighbor. He has his own home and a thriving 
young family. He is a good citizen and is quite typical of a large 
percentage of farmers in that region. 

The French Canadian continues, as of old, to trust in the land 
of the Champlain Valley, in Addison County, and in ever increasing 
numbers he is buying up farms and settling there. In consequence, 

55 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

the membership of five Roman Catholic churches now exceeds that 
of forty Protestant churches. Everywhere is felt the growing 
strength of the Canadian influence. The French Canadian is loyal 
to his own church to a degree which might well be duplicated by 
Protestants. 

Some assimilation might be attained on a purely human basis if 
denominationalism did not run so high and if the Golden Rule were 
more definitely practiced. Successful inter-racial cooperation has 
been developed in Middlebury by the Federation of Women's Clubs 
whose committees take turns visiting in the homes of the foreign- 
born. Sincerity has won these New Americans. If they desire to 
learn English, classes are arranged. In the home of one of the 
town leaders there was a beautiful bowl of flowers on the table. 
They were the gift of ''an Italian friend" of the hostess. She had 
come with her large family on Sunday afternoon, had talked of 
current happenings, strolled through the garden, and enjoyed the 
new records on the phonograph. There are few homes in which 
such hospitality is to be found. The habit of following the line of 
least resistance and indifference is too much a matter of course. 
Especially in rural New England, people need to "thaw out" in their 
attitude toward their leaders, toward each other, and toward the 
stranger within their gates. 



56 



Chapter VII 
THE PROBLEM OF THE SUMMER RESORT 

EVERY summer Warren County is host to more than 15,000 
visitors. The normal year-round population is doubled. Ten 
communities, containing about half the rural population of 
the county, are dependent to some extent upon the summer visitor. 
The more enterprising communities make great preparations. The 
stores with their summer stock become quite up-to-date shops. All 
the business resources are assembled. Some of the people rent rooms 
or furnish board. Others run automobiles to **any place you want 
to go." Everywhere, everyone hustles to entertain the ''city folks" 
in the best possible fashion, on the lakes, through the shaded drives, 
over the mountains or in the tea-rooms. For all this the summer 
folk pay and so do the winter folk. September comes and the 
vacationist returns home. The year-round residents, with their 
easily earned incomes, begin to turn in for the season and all social 
life comes to a sudden standstill like a clock run down. The curtains 
of the gift shops are drawn for the season. Tea-rooms become 
restaurants or go out of business. Automobiles are glad to take 
traveling men from town to town and to attend funerals once again. 
Some of the inhabitants take to the woods and go to lumbering. 
Others, like one well-to-do taxi man, ''do not worry," having laid 
aside a sum of "between $6,000 and $7,000 in two months." 

And what of the churches? In a good many cases they have 
been nearly wrecked. During the summer their pews have been 
filled with , wealthy visitors. The resident congregation has been 
necessarily kept away from services to see that the guests' dinners 
are properly prepared. Different pastors give different versions of 
the effect upon their organizations. One pastor sighed and shook 
his head. "If the summer folks would stay at home," he said, "we 
might be able to manage the winter ones." On the other hand, a 
certain Episcopal rector remarked that if it were not for the summer 
people his church would have to close. In the words of Joseph 
Lincoln, the summer residents live on the lands about Lake George, 
and the "natives live on the summer residents." They depend on 
them not only for their daily bread, but for the support of their 
churches. 

57 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

On the surface the resort churches seem to be better off finan- 
cially than those in non-resort communities. A good many churches 
do not make up their budgets until after the vacation season. Sum- 
mer guests are, as a rule, regular attendants at services and liberal 
with their collections. In non-resort communities the churches raise 
seven-eighths of their funds by subscription. Those in resort centers 
depend largely on collections, more than a third of their money 
being raised by this means. The non-resort churches exceed the 
resort churches in average per capita contribution toward benevo- 
lences. The average per capita expenditure is $26.99 for the resort 
church and only $21.94 in non-resort churches. Pastors' salaries 
in resort churches range from $975 to $2,500, averaging $1,557, 
which is larger than the average for the county. In non-resort 
churches the average is $1,225. 

The task of the summer pastor is not easy. He must please two 
entirely different congregations. At the end of each season there 
comes a sudden change. The year-round congregation has become 
disorganized. Programs so easily carried out with the summer life 
in the community, become impossible because their leaders have 
returned to the cities. 'They came here to play, familiar with organ- 
ized life and full of novel ideas, not afraid to express them and put 
them into practice. The country folk under their leadership found 
it easy to play with them. The guests have failed to do the real 
service of developing local leaders. In October, when a question 
was put concerning the social life of village and church under ordi- 
nary winter conditions, there were shakings of the head and replies 
of "nothing doing," or *'not during the winter." 

A survey of the twenty-two churches affected by summer traffic 
shows that only three interest themselves in civic affairs, four aim 
to aid in agricultural enterprise, eight have socials, three have study 
classes or other educational programs and three have entertainments 
of some sort. Only four have any organizations for men, three of 
these holding joint meetings and proving a vital moving force in the 
community. Twelve churches have Ladies' Aids and only five have 
organizations for young men and women, while there is not a single 
club or society for boys or girls. Yet the net active membership of 
these twenty-two churches is 1,010, nearly one-third of whom are 
young people under twenty-one years of age. There are more than 
300 young people in the summer resort churches wondering each 
fall what to do until next summer when "life" will begin again. 
They will demand recreation. Their parents may be tired of the 
hurry and the social demands made upon them. They may be 

5S 



THE PROBLEM OF THE SUMMER RESORT 

content without a social program. But the young people will never 
be content without it and if it is not provided by the Church they" 
will find it elsewhere. 

It would seem quite natural that the Church should take upon 
itself the responsibility of leadership in social afifairs of the com- 
munity in winter as well as in summer. In the ten communities 
where vacationists gather there are only four libraries. Only one 
grange is active and in only four communities are there lodges. If 
the churches were better business organizations they would be found 
getting together to form some sort of organized program, realizing 
that here is an opportunity to make good. It is a new field ripe for 
cultivation. The summer folks have sown the seed and demonstrated 
the value of cooperation. It is not fair that the vacationists should 
have had all the fun. But there must be permanent leadership to 
organize the new ideas and not new leadership every season or 
oftener. Pastoral changes are all too frequent in these communities. 
Two-thirds of the churches in the resorts have had three or more 
different pastors each during the last decade. Four have had five 
pastors, one has had seven and one has changed pastors eight times. 
It is no wonder then that half the churches are either stationary or 
declining in membership. Fourteen out of the twenty-two churches 
have memberships of fifty or less, although in the ten communities 
where they are located there are 371 persons for every church. 

Only 12 per cent, of the total population of these summer resort 
communities are included in the net active membership of the 
churches. To be sure some of the communities scarcely exist except 
during the summer, and then several of them have large Roman 
Catholic and other non-Protestant populations. In a county where 
farms are so scattered and parishes stretch far out into the hills it 
is almost impossible to get people together unless there is a sufficiently 
interesting center of activity. The Farm Bureau has proved of 
unquestionable value in breaking down barriers of that type of 
indifference which is caused by isolation. It should be the task of 
the churches, not only in summer, but in winter to supply similar 
programs of such caliber as to bring together old and young for 
social as well as religious activity. Whether it be stereopticon lec- 
tures or socials, suppers, amateur theatricals or musicales, it is for 
the leaders of rural churches to consider. Recreation there must 
be, and if it is supplied by the Church as a center the entire com- 
munity gains both socially and spiritually. 



59 



Chapter VIII 
WHAT DO THE YOUNG PEOPLE NEED? 

THE Farm and Home Bureaus in most counties have asked 
themselves this question and set out to find the answer. 
So too have some of the churches, though too few have paid 
sufficiently serious attention to the problem. Tompkins and Addison 
counties are experimenting under the auspices of Farm and Home 
Bureaus along different lines of club activity with boys and girls. 
There are calf clubs, potato clubs, canning clubs, etc. The Farm 
Bureau in Addison County was the first in the state to adopt the 
plan of family membership, the success of which is not to be doubted. 
The young people share in the activities of their parents and are 
not only gaining much information regarding scientific farming but 
are learning to be better citizens, to know the value of team work 
and to realize that their help is necessary in the making of a better 
country Hfe. 

In Warren County there is at present no Home Bureau. The 
opportunity for the churches is evident. The young people would 
gladly welcome any form of program. Twenty-nine per cent, of the 
church enrollment is under twenty-one years of age and yet in all 
the county there is but one *'Soup Club." Such organizations are 
not only for the "par churches" of a county, but might be duplicated 
in every community. This boys' Soup Club stands for hikes, skat- 
ing parties, athletic contests, winter socials, serious talks, friendliness, 
and at the end of the program — soup. But it means more. It means 
strength and a future for the church of the day after tomorrow. 

In the three counties, in addition to a few Boy Scout and Camp 
Fire organizations (the value of which must not be under-estimated) 
and the usual organizations of purely religious character for young 
men and women, there are in the churches only seven societies for 
boys and six for girls — thirteen social groups with a membership 
of 255, compared with twenty-five societies and clubs outside the 
churches with a membership of nearly 2,000. A little less than one- 
third of the church members under twenty-one years of age are 
active in church organizations. The Ep worth League and the 
Christian Endeavor are a very great influence in Christian life but 

60 



WHAT DO THE YOUNG PEOPLE NEED? 

they cannot altogether take the place of the informal, get-together 
social clubs. The churches lack such activities because they are 
too satisfied with things as they have always been. Organizations 
outside the church are all the time providing something new, vital, 
related to life, and have therefore won to their ranks a large follow- 
ing of young people who thrive on "something new." Until the 
churches are willing to make serious efforts to appeal to their young 
people in a like manner, church organizations for them will not be 
popular. 

Could the older people encourage the organization of young 
people's societies? They most assuredly could if only by the activity 
of their own organizations. Concerning the work of the ladies' 
societies, nothing need be said. The survey shows that 88 per cent, 
of the women on the church roll are active workers in church or- 
ganizations. They are, indeed, the pillars of the Church today. 
The men have not yet considered to any extent that a socially organ- 
ized effort on their part would benefit their churches. There are in 
three counties only eleven church organizations for men, enrolling 
about one man in every six of the church membership. Twenty- 
seven churches out of 144 report no social organizations whatever, 
and twenty-four entire communities have no social organizations in 
the churches. Contrast this situation with that which exists in the 
way of community organizations outside the Church. There are 
thirty-five granges whose membership is nearly 4,000. There are 
sixty-five lodges with 6,029 members (approximately) and in 
seventy-three other social and civic organizations there are more 
than 5,000 members. It is evident that something is lacking some- 
where in the church program. 

Here and there are pastors who have solved the problem of or- 
ganizing their people for service. For example, in one rural com- 
munity of one of these counties there lives a busy pastor of three 
churches, one of which is seven and another ten miles from his home. 
In order to bring his salary up to a living wage he teaches school 
four and one -half miles away, making the trip to and from his 
school on foot since two miles of the journey are over mountain 
land. He is not only a pastor and a teacher. He is also the local 
correspondent for the county paper and special reporter for the 
county seat's two newspapers. He plays the cornet in the town band. 
He also fills the position of Conference Secretary to the Sunday 
School Board. He is the County Superintendent of Sunday schools. 
He teaches Sunday school every Sunday and directs a rural teachers' 
training class. The main and most vital reason for his success in 

61 



. X , „„ ^/ ,^ . 



fmk *t*l^. 



«^ 



A 













A VERSATILE PASTOR 

Here is a rural minister whose life is just one long holiday. Above are represented 
two of his diversions— playing the cornet in the town band and "hiking" with his Boy 
Scouts. His other activities include preaching in three churches, teaching day school and 
Sunday School, acting as County Sunday School Superintendent and sitting on various 
committees. He devotes his spare time to reporting for two newspapers. 



62 



WHAT DO THE YOUNG PEOPLE NEED? 

the community lies in his hold upon the young people. He has three 
troops of Boy Scouts. They camp together, hike, and hold social 
meetings. These boys do not have to be dragged to prayer meetings. 
They come to the pastor's house and ask where the meetings are 
to be held, and then they attend and take active part in them. When 
asked as to how he had managed to break down all barriers and so 
solidly gain the absolute confidence of his boys, he said : "Well, when 
I was a boy, I remember" — and he needed to say no more. 

There should be more leaders of this sort. Rural churches all 
but entirely neglect boys' and girls' work. Church and school should 
cooperate more closely in the building up of Christian citizenship. 
Churches, which have undertaken special work among young people 
and tried programs for a long enough time to prove their value, 
have realized that through organized eflfort among boys and girls 
comes the larger devotion both in faith and in service for the future. 



63 



Chapter IX 
OVER- AND UNDERCHURCHING ' 

ONE of the reasons for the small church memberships and for 
the decline in attendance is to be found in the overchurching 
which exists throughout the area. In Tompkins County this 
is especially apparent. The rural population of this county divided 




ONE SIDE OF A VILLAGE SQUARE 

The School and the Universalist and Methodist Episcopal Churches at Speedsville, 

Tompkins County 

by the number of churches gives a proportion of one church to every 
332 people. When the Roman Catholic membership is deducted this 
figure drops materially. Two communities have five churches each; 
one of the communities has a population of only 900, and not one 
of its churches has a resident pastor. Sectarianism is strong enough 
to have divided this community and none of the churches has more 
than forty-five active members, two having only eleven each. Six 

64 



OVER- AND UNDERCHURCHING 

strictly rural communities, most of them in the southern part of the 
county, have sixteen churches, although in each of these places the 
constituency cannot properly support more than one church with a 
resident pastor. Some of the observers of the situation frankly state 
that the Church would be greatly strengthened if one-third of the 
churches in the county were eliminated. Certain it is that parish 
lines need to be reorganized, especially within denominations, for 
there are certain cases within the county where that least excusable 
of overchurching sins is committed — namely, competition between 
churches of the same denomination. 




GROWTH AND DECAY 

The successful Wesleyan Methodist Church at Bakers Mills, Warren County, and by 
its side the dilapidated Pentecostal Holiness Church still struggling along with a pastor 
living; in the church building and about a dozen members. The Wesleyan Church would 
be still further strengthened if another church of the same denomination, served by the 
same pastor, less than two miles away, would consent to close its doors. 

The larger communities of Warren County are overchurched. 
In one town there are five large Protestant church organizations 
besides other smaller groups worshiping separately. The popula- 
tion is only 2,500 and only one-fifth are active church members. 
The smaller, weaker organizations prove a stumbling block to the 
larger ones and they themselves can hope for no more than a static 
existence. Lack of unified force makes adequate financial support 
an impossibility. Small memberships where the population is not 
increasing deprive any church of whole-hearted service. If some 
of the small, struggling memberships would join with the stronger 
organizations their influence might be more than doubled. Unless 
some such step is taken there will surely be continued poverty in 

65 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

religious activity. Pastors will continue to "carry on," though ill- 
supported, and be forced to follow other occupations besides the 
ministry in order to live. Some will give up and join the silent 
strikers from the ranks of the ministry. 

In one instance, in a purely rural area, there are two churches 
of the same denomination holding services within a mile of each 
other. They have the same pastor, who serves also another church 
not far away. Some of the members of one church live in the parish 
of the other and the people at the latter attend service frequently in 
the community where the pastor lives rather than in their own, yet 
refuse to have their churches united. Thus the service this pastor 
might render to one strong church is divided into two parts and he 
must hold services for two small, weak congregations instead of for 
one large, responsive one. Contrasted with these areas, which have 
more churches than they can possibly support, are the neglected 
areas. There are three communities in Warren County and one in 
Addison County, with a total population of 549, having neither 
church service nor Sunday schools. There are not enough people in 
any one of the four to support a pastor and drifted roads in winter 
make traveling next to impossible. The consequence is that these 
people, excepting a few in one community who som'etimes attend a 
school-house service, are absolutely neglected. 

Goshen, Vermont, has two unused church buildings, one of which 
is in very good repair. The pastor of a neighboring church is willing 
and anxious to serve the Goshen people, who number more than 
100, but they have no interest in the church, and there is little use 
in a hard trip to preach to empty pews. The community is satis- 
fied with Grange life as its backbone. In a little neighborhood of 
southwestern Warren County there is a pastorless church, which, 
however, continues to grow. Its Ladies' Society and Sunday school 
are active, and regular services are held. Once a month a neighbor- 
ing pastor sends a written sermon, which is read from the pulpit 
by one of the leading members. Last year a splendid revival service 
was held here resulting in twenty-one converts and a new awakening 
of enthusiasm in the organization. The chief problem of this little 
neighborhood is its scattered population. Leading members predict, 
however, a good future in this field if a resident pastor is sent to 
the rescue. Few are the country churches that are so alive to their 
responsibility that they register a definite gain even though they 
have no pastors. 

In the Industrial School at Vergennes, Vermont, are nearly 300 
persons. Of these, at least 160 are Protestant, and yet no kind of 

66 



OVER- AND UNDERCHURCHING 

strictly religious services are held for them. The state pays a 
Roman Catholic priest for his services to those of his faith in the 
institution and they are well cared for. The school authorities are 
not in favor of one denomination taking charge of services, but 
would welcome Protestant ministers of different denominations in 
turn. On the other hand, the Protestant pastors feel that little could 
be accomplished in this way, and the result is that no Protestant 
minister goes out to the school. Ethical talks, music and services 
of a general nature are provided on Sundays, but they are not 
especially of a religious nature and religious services are much 
needed. 

In the mountainous sections of Warren County there are folks 
who are not unlike the mountaineers of the Appalachian range and 
though a few are reached by a traveling missionary who serves a 
six-point circuit, there are many who know very little about religion. 

If the stronger churches in all three counties could in some way 
extend their parishes further out into the hills they might do a piece 
of real missionary work. This would mean better citizens, more 
church members and larger attendance and would check the decline 
in church strength. One-third of Warren County's churches have 
less than twenty-five members and of these 86 per cent, are declining. 
There are only seventeen churches in the county with as many as 
fifty members. Unless some definite measures are speedily taken, 
at least one-third of the present active churches must soon suffer the 
fate of the nine churches already abandoned. 



67 



"0 »-. 



Chapter X 

ONE WAY OUT— CHURCH FEDERATION AND THE 

VERMONT PLAN 

FOUR years ago "the leading representatives of the Congrega- 
tional, Methodist Episcopal and Baptist denominations in 
the State of Vermont together worked out a plan in defense 
of religion in the rural community. They realized that unless some- 
thing was done immediately, a large proportion of the Protestant 
churches would soon be closed. 

The Vermont plan recognized the following methods for carrying 
out their ideals in particular overchurched communities: 

1st. — The absolute withdrawal of one denomination in favor of 
another. 

2nd. — The federation of the existing churches without the with- 
drawal of either denomination. 

3rd.^--The temporary maintenance of the ecclesiastical organiza- 
tion of the denomination withdrawing until the entire with- 
' i^tawal could be wisely effected. 

In the main, the superintendents have favored and efifected the 
first plan. A denomination which surrendered its rights to any 
given community was compensated by being given sole responsibility 
in another locality. This plan retains in each community one strong 
working church with overhead supervision properly geared up to the 
driving power of the ecclesiastical body to which it belongs. The 
federated plan provides for union in worship of two or more 
churches, with one pastor, but maintains each church organization 
fully and does not look to the withdrawal of any denomination. 
Alternation of pastors between the denominations concerned is a 
frequent but not a necessary feature. The local program is thor- 
oughly unified. Each organization contributes to its own denomina- 
tional benevolences and a joint committee handles the local affairs 
of the federation. 

The Vermont plan has been successful in the main. Thirty-four 
communities have been organized with but one congregation each. 
Seventy-four churches have been affected by the readjustments. 
More than a score of pastors have been freed for service elsewhere 
and approximately $3,000 in missionary money has been saved. The 

68 



ONE WAY OUT— CHURCH FEDERATION 

net average salary of the ministers has been increased, although in 
a number of communities the total amount paid for salaries has 
decreased. It must be admitted that while church attendance and 
membership have been increased in some places they have remained 
stationary or have decreased in quite a number. This is due to 
population changes. Two mail carriers in one community, for 
instance, report that in the last six years eighty farms have changed 
owners and all but six of these have passed into the hands of 
Catholics. 

In none of the instances reported in a state-wide canvass of the 
situation by the Rev. C. C. Merill, Congregational State Secretary, 
was there any question as to the success of the movement. In some 
cases the adjustment was proceeding slowly but hopefully. The 
standing of the church in the community was materially bettered in 
all cases. The chance for more effective community service was 
greatly enhanced, and in many cases a number of community ac- 
tivities under church auspices had been successfully inaugurated. 

In Addison County the movement for church consolidation was 
under way before the denominational superintendents and secre- 
taries began their epoch-making work. Under these circumstances 
the federated church was the way out, and there are more federated 
churches in Addison County than there are congregations to which 
has been given sole responsibility for a particular field. 

Evidence appears in many communities of a successful attempt 
to stay the movement toward the disappearance of Protestantism in 
declining open country areas. There are five federated churches in 
the county, four of which are a combination of Methodist and Bap- 
tist denominations located in country districts, and the other a 
Federation of Methodist and Congregational denominations in a 
village. The latter has been most successful. Its membership has 
increased and during last year its net gain was twenty-nine members. 
The leading men of the community are the leading men of the 
church. Interest in community activity has been developed through 
the initiative of the Brotherhood. The Sunday school has increased 
in devotion, attendance and organized endeavor. In the country 
churches, federation has been more difficult. Church membership 
with them has not increased except in one case. During the last 
five or ten years the total membership of the five federated churches 
has remained nearly stationary. There is no reason to believe, how- 
ever, that any better record would have been made under circum- 
stances of competition. 

Although there have been favorable results in some cases, the 

69 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

effort toward federation in Addison County has not yet proved 
entirely successful. As to the success of the arrangement in one 
community, a leading citizen remarked: "It is our only salvation, 
we could do no other way." In another community, however, the 
Baptist part of a Federated organization desires to leave and unite 
with an organization of its own denomination in another community. 
Another federated organization uses the Methodist Episcopal and 
Baptist buildings each for six months of the year. Members of each 
organization are more or less inactive during the half of the year when 
their own building is closed. But these are rather defects in human 
nature than in the ideal of cooperation. In some cases the arrange- 
ment seems to have drawn tighter the lines of denominationalism. 
Four Protestant churches, besides a large Roman Catholic church, 
are holding regular services in a community of i,8oo people. The 
Roman Catholic constituency is estimated at 500, which means that 
there is a Protestant church for every 325 non-Catholics. The 
church records show, however, that only about one-fifth of the 
population are active church members. One of the stronger churches 
here has very cordially invited a weaker organization to join in its 
services. The weaker church has few members, is not self- 
supporting and has suffered from too frequent pastoral changes. 
The arrangement has not been successfully carried out, however, 
and both churches hold regular services at present. 

It would appear on the strength of the state-wide results of the 
Vermont plan that the denominational community church with sole 
responsibility obtains somewhat better results than the federated 
church. Probably this plan in certain communities would be a con- 
siderable improvement over the present situation and would effect a 
solution of the problems which could not be brought about by 
federation, for federation is sometimes blocked by dislike for change 
and lack of leadership along with well defined denominational lines, 
which always mean possible withdrawal of one body or the other 
from the federation. 

Many causes for success and failure in federation are evident in 
Addison County. Dislike for change in the older, settled communi- 
ties; lack of leadership; denominational lines; a sentiment for things 
as they have always been — all these causes have tended to block a 
genuine getting together, not only in religious but in social and 
economic efforts toward cooperative progress. 



70 



Chapter XI 
NEW RUDDERS FOR OLD SHIPS 

GOOD Fences Make Good Neighbors," says the farmer in one 
of Robert Frost's most typical New England poems, "Mend- 
ing Wall." There are many farmers who still cling to that 
belief and continue to look upon life as a one-man job. Without 
adequately trained leadership rural communities can never hope to lay 
aside their non-cooperative creed. A pastor alone cannot make a 
church successful ; nor can two or three laymen — everyone must 
"carry on." No community can expect to grow, while its people, 
when interviewed as to their leading citizens, say that "they just 
lead themselves." 

The country needs new rudders for its old ships. It needs more 
efficient business men in its country stores ; trained librarians who 
will not only teach the young people how and what to read, but who 
will, by their sympathetic understanding and desire for the com- 
munity's welfare, join whole-heartedly in leading the community to 
better things. One young librarian is proving what may be accom- 
plished in a community in the West. She does more than stamp 
books and put them away and scowl at lads who make too much 
noise. She has a weekly story hour — she arranges picnics and on 
days when the library is closed she hikes with different groups and 
they read and tell stories together. She writes inspiring articles for 
the weekly paper and addresses the Parent-Teachers' Association 
from time to time. She cooperates with the school teacher. In 
brief, she is the village advisor, a real power in the community, wel- 
comed always at socials and public gatherings, and the secret of all 
her success is her sincerity and her desire to be of service. 

Twenty-one communities in Addison County have libraries, but 
it is doubtful if one of them can boast of activities of such interest 
and influence as have just been described. In the three counties 
there are fifty communities which have no free public libraries. The 
churches could and should fill the need adequately and without 
serious effort. There is no way in which churches might more 
easily become real community centers than by supplying their people, 

71 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

old and young, with the right kind of books. Less than half of the 
churches report libraries in their Sunday schools. Many of those 
which have them need a great deal of weeding. Up-to-date collec- 
tions of readable, interesting books are rarely found. In every parish 
it should be possible to discover someone to take charge of the 
library. 

If the libraries were revolutionized, the leadership of another 
great neglected field might become transformed, namely, that of the 
Sunday schools themselves. Religious education is usually the weak- 
est point in rural churches. Schools are poorly organized, and far 
behind the times in their methods of teaching. In the three counties 
there are 123 regularly organized Sunday schools connected with 




A RURAL LIBRARY 
One of the twenty-one libraries in Addison County 

the churches. Including the membership of nine separate Sunday 
schools these schools have a total enrollment' of 8,080, or 74 per cent. 
of the number in the total church membership of the three counties. 
Forty schools endeavor, by means of contests and rewards, to 
increase their attendance, which averages 57 per cent, of the enroll- 
ment on a typical Sunday morning. Although membership is smaller 
in Warren County, the average attendance is higher than that 
reported by the Sunday schools of the other two counties. The 
enrollment of the schools of Tompkins County equals 80 per cent, of 
the number on its church rolls, and they average twice the number 
enrolled in either Warren or Addison Sunday schools, though in 
attendance they show a lower average, only 52 per cent, being present 
on a typical Sunday. Only thirty-four of the 123 Sunday schools 
report organized departments, sixty have cradle rolls and fifty-one 

n 



NEW RUDDERS FOR OLD SHIPS 

have home departments. Only 50 per cent, of the Sunday schools, 
report regular periods given to mission study. 

Religion is not yet a subject taught in public schools. The home 
has largely failed to teach it directly and many parents are indififerent 
to the Sunday school. One hour a week is set aside for teaching 
Christianity to our young people — that is, two days a year given 
to the direction of the spiritual development of the next generation. 

Of the 123 Sunday schools connected with churches, only seven 
make any special provision for training in leadership. That this 
training is at once necessary and difficult to provide is evident to all 
who have attempted to provide.it. Bad roads, long hours of labor 
in the country and the difficulty of obtaining the proper leaders make 
the task seem next to impossible. It has been done, however, in 
many communities where training classes for young people are held 
weekly at the regular Sunday school hour. There are in the three 
counties sixteen teachers' training classes, but Warren County has 
only two. 

There is also a lack of adequate social activity. Boys and girls 
cannot be expected to be satisfied with annual picnics and class 
socials. The playground and the community service room are rap- 
idly becoming necessities in Sunday school equipment. In these 
three counties three-fourths of the schools held picnics. Fifty-six 
schools report class socials and fifty-three report social times as a 
whole. As for other organizations of a social nature, Addison 
County reports none, Warren has just one and Tompkins County 
reports eight. 

One pastor, interviewed on the subject of recreation, replied : 
**We don't want any such 'high jinks' in our Sunday schools." Now 
the dictionary gives the following definition of "high jinks": ''an 
old Scotch game in which one was chosen by lot to perform a task ; 
hence, jollification" — and jollification is nothing more than merry- 
making. A social program is as necessary to religious education 
as food is to the health of the body. The wheels in the machinery 
of a "going" organization are many, and the social wheel is in no 
way insignificant. If such a program is carried on merely to get 
the young people into the Sunday school it deserves to fail, but if 
its motive is more fully to interest members and thereby create a 
desire in their youthful hearts to become loyal church members, then 
it becomes a vital part of the Christian message and program. 

From 35 per cent, of the Sunday schools, 276 pupils were made 
church members last year — an average of only 5 per school. Nearly 
one-half of this number joined Tompkins County churches, 21 per 

7Z 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

cent, were in Warren and 30 per cent, were in Addison County. 
Thirty-four pupils have entered some form of Christian work during 
the last decade, and twenty of these came from Tompkins County. 
There are many successful Sunday schools in rural America which 
serve as prophets of a new day. All three counties studied firmly 
believe in Sunday schools, but as in so many other activities, they 
still cling to the old-time methods. It seems unfortunate that in 
only twenty-six schools are classes reported which prepare pupils 
for church membership. Regular classes for that purpose might 
be held during a stated period each year. In such a way the mean- 
ing of the Gospel could be presented so that the leak from the 
Sunday schools would be checked and the "teen" age scholars car- 
ried over into full church membership and Christian service. For 
this purpose men and women are needed of vivid personality, of 
energy and of imagination. It is as easy for children as for their 
parents to drift. Unless there is sufficient dynamic force in the 
heart of the organization to hold them, they lose interest, and the 
Sunday school becomes a burden to all concerned instead of a place 
of preparation for future church prosperity. 



74 



Chapter XII 
THE HAND OF THE DEAD 



IN a county adjoining Warren is a small community in which 
there are three endowed churches. All of these endowments 
are more than one hundred years old. The provision of the 
original gift in each case stipulates that, if the church ceases to be 
an organized congregation of the particular denomination to which 
the donor belongs, the endowment shall revert to the heirs. The 



HOW THE CHURCH DOLLAR IS RAISED 

IN 18 CHURCHES HAVING ENDOWMENTS 



COLLECTION' 
.04 



1VIISCELLANE0US' 
.15 




SUBS CRIPTION 
62 



ENDOWMENT 

"at 



45% of the churches have endowments. 
72% of the total receipts of the county 
come from endowed churches. 



CHART V 
(Addison County only) 



combined membership of these churches is barely one hundred. 
They have been anxious to federate, but the hand of the dead 
prevents this progressive step. Consequently, each continues to 
support a resident minister who is condemned by the terms of the 
gift to minister to the few people who remain in the community. 
It is sometimes an open question whether an endowment is a bane 
or a blessing to a church organization. 

There are in Addison County forty active churches, and eighteen 
of them have endowments, the interest on which amounts to more 

75 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

than $6,000 annually. Seven of them are in the open country and 
eleven are in villages. They have 70 per cent, of the total Protestant 
church enrollment of the county and nearly three-fourths of the 
financial receipts of all its churches. All but four of these organ- 
izations are served by full-time resident pastors. Three have half- 
time pastors and one a pastor who serves three points. Fifty -two 
per cent, of their expenditures are for salaries, only 20 per cent, for 
benevolence and 28 per cent, for contingent expense. Of their total 
receipts, 19 per cent, is from interest on endowment, 62 per cent, is 
raised by subscription, 4 per cent, is from collections and 15 per 
cent, from miscellaneous sources. The average annual per capita 
contribution per active member is $1.4.05, about one-fifth less than 
the average for the county. 

During the last ten years, seven of the churches have declined 
in membership and during last year less than half made any gain. 
It is human nature to expect nothing for nothing. The unpaid 
entertainer has usually a disinterested audience. When people have 
really paid for something, they grow interested in its success. To 
drift along on the smooth waters of endowments is easy and once 
having drifted it is doubly dif^cult to take the oars in hand again 
and pull for a definite mark. The system of tithing is a severe 
one, but it keeps an organization fit, though to deserve a tithe a 
church must be in reality a station of spiritual and community 
service. Instead of proving a check on church welfare, endowments 
should provide a greater incentive toward the development of pros- 
perity and progress. Their possession is a trust, not a crutch. 



76 



Chapter XIII 
A BACKWARD LOOK 

MANY of the situations and problems discussed thus far are 
concretely illustrated in Tompkins County, which was sur- 
veyed in 191 1 by the Rev. Charles Otis Gill. He made a 
painstaking comparison of the conditions as he found them with 
those existing in 1890.* The study included membership, attendance, 
church expenditures and ministers' salaries. These were taken as 
indices of the condition of the country churches examined on these 
points. This earlier study enabled Prof. Dwight Sanderson, of the 
New York College of Agriculture, Cornell University, who made 
the Interchurch survey of Tompkins County in 1920, to formulate 
comparisons between the figures gathered by him and those of Gill 
for 1890 and 1910. This chapter, therefore, summarizes Professor 
Sanderson's conclusions. 

The results of this comparison seem to indicate that the country 
church problem in Tompkins County is still unsolved. As was the 
case in a number of churches elsewhere for which Mr. Gill was 
able to find records, church attendance in Tompkins County in 1890 
exceeded church membership. Whereas 19.7 per cent, of the popu- 
lation belonged to churches, attendants numbered 21 per cent, of the 
people. By 1910 the membership, in the face of a decline of 14.3 
per cent, in population, had risen to 23 per cent, of the population, 
but only 71 per cent, of the members and 16.3 per cent, of the 
population were found to attend church services. By the end of 
1920 there had been a further loss in population of 4.3 per cent., 
but the total membership had increased 13 per cent., equaling 27 
per cent, of the population. Attendants had, however, fallen to 14 
per cent, of the population and 51.8 per cent, of the membership. 
Even if all but active members be eliminated from the discussion 
and it is assumed that the church has no further responsibility 
toward those of its members who have become inactive, attendance 
shows a falling ofif of ten per cent, in proportion to membership as 
compared with 191 o. 

If the county be taken as a whole, there has been a net increase 

* For the detailed results of this survey and for a full description of the 
method used see 'The Country Church," by C. O. Gill and Gifford Pinchot; 
Macmillan Company; 1913. 

77 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 



of 13 per cent, in church membership in the last thirty years, almost 
all of it in the last decade. This has been in the face of a loss in 
population of 17.96 per cent. This gain has been registered by five 
of the nine townships, eight of which have lost in populaticpn. In 
attendance there has been, however, a decline of 45.1 per cent, in 
thirty years and of 17.9 per cent, in the last decade. 

The exact situation for the county as a whole and for each 
separate township is set forth in the table on the page opposite.* 

An analysis of the financial situation discloses a somewhat 
different story. There has been a steady increase in the number of 



Comparative Trends of Population, 
Church Membership and Attendance 

- Tompkins County - 



-50 




1890 



1900 



19 



50 






0) 


40 


(f) 









(U 


30 






Q) 


?0 







t_ 







10 






(L> 




to 





a 




(\) 




t_ 


-10 




c 


-20 


c 




(D 


-30 







t_ 


-40 


CD 

n 



-50 







1920 



1930 



CHART VI 

dollars contributed, an increase especially marked in the last decade 

and shared in to a greater or less degree by every township but one. 

During the last thirty years the purchasing power of the dollar 

has, however, been steadily shrinking. Contributions later than 

1890 were, therefore, reduced to terms of their purchasing power 

in 1890 dollars. From this point of view there has been a decline 

in total giving though a marked increase in benevolences. The 

influence of the great denominational and interdenominational drives 

and missionary campaigns, beginning with the Laymen's Missionary 

Movement and the Missionary Education Movement, is clearly in 

evidence here. All these campaigns of education and stewardship 

*The figures for 1890 and 1910 in all tables in this chapter are quoted 
from 'The Country Church," by Gill and Pinchot, 

78 



A BACKWARD LOOK 



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79 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

have been made possible through the leadership and fidelity of the 
ministers whose own recompense is, however, relatively 38 per cent, 
less now than in 1890. Two townships only show increase in total 
contributions when measured by purchasing power, and the bulk 
of this increase is accounted for by Groton, which has enjoyed an 
industrial expansion due to the Corona Typewriter Works situated 
there.* The tables following give the detailed results of church 
expenditures in terms of dollars raised and in terms of purchasing 
power. 

EXPENDITURES OF THE CHURCHES OF TOMPKINS COUNTY 
DURING SPECIFIED YEARS 

Average Yearly Expenditures Percentage of Gain 

in Dollars or Loss 

1886-90 1906-10 1919-20 1890-1910 1890-1920 1910-1920 

County 32,826 35,213 59,780 +7 +82 +70 

Salaries 17,128 17,194 27,127 o +58 +58 

Benevolences . . 2,821 . 5,271 17,809 +87 + 531 + 238 

Improvement . . 6,430 3,522 ■ — — — 45 — 

Townships 

Caroline 4,388 2,649 2,327 — 40 — 47 — 12 

Danby 2,539 1,529 4,532 — 40 +79 +196 

Dryden 2,744 6,335 ii,5io +131 + 3i9 + 82 

Enfield 1,513 1,712 2,284 + I3 + 5i + 2>Z 

Groton 4,012 4,216 16,498 +5 +311 + 291 

Lansing 3,857 5,077 5,232 -\- 2>2 + Z^ +3 

Newfield 4,187 2,951 4,835 — 25 +15 +64 

Ulysses 7,586 10,744 12,562 +42 +66 +17 

EXPENDITURES OF THE CHURCHES OF TOMPKINS COUNTY 

EXPRESSED IN TERMS OF THE PURCHASING POWER 

OF THE DOLLAR IN 1890 

Average Yearly Expenditures Per Cent, of Gain or Loss 

in 1890 Dollars in 1890 Dollars 

1886-90 1906-1910 1919-20 1890-1910 1890-1920 1910-1920 

County 32,826 26,880 23,352 —18 — 29 —13 

Salaries 17,128 13,125 10,596 —2Z — 38 — 19 

Benevolences 2,821 4,024 6,956 +43 + I47 + 73 

Improvements 6,430 2,689 — — 58 — — 

Townships 

Caroline ..... 4,388 2,022 909 — 54 — 79 — 55 

Danby 2,539 1,167 1,770 —54 — 30 +52 

Dryden 2,744 4,836 4,496 -\- 76 + 64-68 — 7 

Enfield 1,513 1,307 893 —14 — 41 — 32 

Groton 4,012 3,218 6,444 — 20 +61 +100 

Lansing 3,857 3,876 2,044 o — 47 — 47 

Newfield 4,187 2,253 1,889 —46 — 55 — 16 

Ulysses 7,586 8,201 4,907 +8 — 35 — 40 

* It is interesting to note that in the last three census periods the average 
value of the farms of Tompkins County has fallen steadily, and from 
$3,270 is now $2,550. 

80 



A BACKWARD LOOK 



HOW THE DIMINISHING DOLLAR IS SPENT 

TOMPKINS COUNTY 



IMPROVEMENTS 

20<yt 




improvements! 

10O/o\l 



BENEVOLENCES: 
15% 



BENEVOLENCES 




IMPROVEMENTS 
13% 



BENEVOLENCES 
30% 




1890- 



1910 



1920- 



Although gifts in dollars have increased 82% 
in SOyears, the purchasing power of these dollars 
has decreased 29% in the same period. 



CHART VII 



The facts here given are open to the reader's own interpretation. 
To the author they seem to indicate the inefficiency and wastefulness 
of the haphazard system of denominational competition. There are 




A LIVE CHURCH IN TOMPKINS COUNTY 
Presbyterian Church at Trumansburg 

fifty-seven churches in Tompkins County. Thirty-seven of them 
now have less than fifty active members and all but nine of the fifty- 
seven compete more or less with other churches for the attention of 
the people, although in a dozen cases such competition covers 

81 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

one-third or less of the parishes involved. Weak and feeble as they 
are, they are losing their lives because they seek to save them. They 
are for the most part devoid of any all-round program. Their 
failure is evidenced by the response of the membership to the chal- 
lenge of world-wide Christian statesmanship as registered in giving, 
and by the steady loss of interest in the local work as shown by the 
declining attendance in most churches and the increasing interest 
and attention freely given to the Red Cross, the Farm Bureau and 
other such useful agencies. Those churches within the county which 
are conducting their work on a broad basis and which are emphasiz- 
ing an all-round program of worship, education and service are 
gaining in every respect. Unrestrained denominationalism has had 
full sway in Tompkins County these many years. The results cry 
to heaven. An inter-denominational, statesmanlike plan of county- 
wide action and service in which all now at work might share could 
do no worse and might do much better. Here is a situation in which 
the Vermont plan might well be tried. Tompkins County has long 
ago learned the value of economic cooperation. Might not this plan 
of federation be applied here with success? Other agencies have 
become "going" organizations by joining forces. Certain it is that 
the day has come when it is not a question of whether to save the 
Church, but how to save it. 



82 



Chapter XIV 
CONCERNING THE RURAL PASTOR 

LTPON the vision and aggressiveness of the ministers in a large 
I measure depend the impact which the Church makes upon the 
community and the response which the community gives to 
the Church. 

Ninety-two pastors serve the 144 churches in the three counties 
studied. Of this number, thirty-one are in Addison, twenty-six are 
in Vv^arren and thirty-five pastors are in Tompkins County. Nine- 
teen of these men have other occupations, in addition to their min- 
isterial work. Eleven churches were pastorless at the time of the 
survey. Seventy-nine churches have pastors resident in their 
parishes, fifty-four churches are served by non-resident pastors. 
Only twenty-four of the eighty-two communities of the three 
counties have full-time resident pastors, Warren County having but 
one community with pastors who serve but one church each and 
follow no other occupation. Nearly 58 per cent, of the pastors 
serve one point each. Twenty-five pastors serve two points, eleven 
serve three points. There is only one six-point circuit in the three 
counties. 

The question of pastors' salaries has an important bearing upon 
efficiency, and the seriousness of this question has been increased by 
recent high costs affecting the professional classes more than any 
other. Inadequate salaries are one cause of the restlessness every- 
where in evidence in the rural ministry. From 69 to 75 per cent, of 
the pastors are receiving less than $1,500 a year. Some day, 
America's rural ministry will show evidence of more than a silent 
strike. Under present conditions it is not surprising that ministers 
cease to be ministers and that young men are entering the rural 
ministry in fewer numbers. When it is realized that, in the three 
counties studied, there are ten pastors receiving salaries of less than 
$500, seven receiving from $500 to $750, and twenty-five receiving 
$1,000 or less, it is not surprising that two-thirds of the churches 
have had three or more different pastors each during the last decade. 
One of the most serious drawbacks to the growth of churches is the 
short pastorates which prevail throughout our rural areas. One 

83 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

church has been served by nine different pastors during the last ten 
years. 

Seventy-seven per cent, of the pastors are trained men. Eighteen 
are college graduates, nine are graduates of seminary or Bible 
schools and forty-four, nearly 50 per cent., are graduates of both. 
Yet the average salary paid in the three counties is only $1,289, 
including $250 added as average rental value of parsonages when 
provided. Warren County averages higher than the other two coun- 
ties in this respect, the average salary of the summer resort com- 



SALARY SCALE OF THE MINISTERS 


> 


44 
linistcrs 

n 






h/ 


.23 


rs 


Minisfcrs 










IVIinislers 

n 






Under $500" $1000 

$500 $1000 $1500 

ANNUAL SALAR-^ 


Over 
$1500 


75% of the mtnisters receive less than $1500 a year 



CHART VIII 



munities being $1,557. Tompkins County, though the best organized, 
pays the smallest average salary of $1,177, and three-fourths of its 
pastors are trained men. The churches of these counties believe in 
the resident pastor. Seventy-two per cent, of Addison County's 
churches are served by resident pastors, yet only in certain instances 
are they receiving a living wage. Without adequate means of sup- 
port, the pastors must necessarily remain only temporarily in a com- 
munity, and with the rapid succession of pastors serving its churches 
there can be only a passing acquaintance between the people and their 
religious leaders and a lack of mutual understanding as the result. 
Too few churches offer the best sort of field for the pastor. 
He comes hopeful and optimistic as the reports on the future of the 
different churches show. In a year or two the actual situation re- 

84 



CONCERNING THE RURAL PASTOR 

veals itself in all its hopelessness and the minister seeks another 
charge. The frequency of these changes has probably several deter- 
mining causes. There may be faults on the side of both pastors 
and people — but the condition calls for attention among church 
leaders, for the churches are stationary while the pastors come 
and go. 



85 



Chapter XV 
CONCLUSION 

ADDISON, Tompkins and Warren Counties together present 
a land of beautiful scenery, a land of "romantic realism" 
and a people facing certain vital, difficult problems bearing 
on future church and community life. 

There are hill towns struggling for mere existence, with an ever 
declining population. There are communities finding themselves 
through the development of industry. There are summer resort 
centers keenly alive during the vacation season and existing in a 
state of comparative lethargy during the rest of the year. Indiffer- 
ence exists everywhere. Churches are declining in members and 
enthusiasm for service through lack of leadership and short-termed 
pastorates. New Americans and the farmers from the West have 
found it difficult to break down the barriers of individualistic com- 
munities and are still very largely on the "outside of things." Agri- 
cultural organizations are found doing the church's share of supply- 
ing young people's programs. Again and again have been heard 
calls for community houses, unanswered nearly all of them. There 
are overchurched communities in which there is need for some such 
action as that undertaken in the Vermont plan, and there are others 
absolutely neglected as to religious service. Pastors are everywhere 
striving to serve without adequate salaries and without the encour- 
agement, support or equipment necessary for any measure of success. 

On the other hand, people are awakening to the realization that 
the day of reconstruction is near. Dawn is approaching, and there- 
fore they are waiting, undiscouraged. They are ready for the 
weeding out of prejudice, indifference and neglect. Town and 
county are meeting as friends and co-workers, as is evidenced by the 
interest of Glens Falls churches in the larger parish plan. There 
are leaders all along the line who are demanding better conditions 
in agriculture, education and business enterprise. What then, shall 
be said of these problems that have presented themselves for un- 
raveling in the churches? 

Underlying the several problems discussed in the foregoing 
chapters are a few basic facts. One of these is that there are many 

86 



CONCLUSION 

« 
churches for the people. The average is two and one-half Protestant 

congregations for every one thousand men, women and children. 
If the probable Catholic population be deducted, the average is a 
little more than three churches for every thousand of population. 
The second fact is that memberships are very small. Two-thirds of 
the churches have fifty active members or less, though the average 
for the region is 55 per cent. This means that the churches are 
weak. The small memberships, mean inability to have strong or- 
ganizations and to impress the community. The Church then ceases 
to be a social institution of considerable value and ceases to be 
dynamic enough to lead the individual into a sense of triumphant 



DISTRIBUTION OF MEMBERSHIP 



OVER ?1 
49% 



MALES I 



FEMALES 




UNDER 21 
6% 



CHART IX 



living that comes through fellowship with the Church's Founder. 
The third underlying factor in this situation is the small number of 
young people within the membership of these churches. It is a 
fact which makes their future even more dark than the figures, taken 
at their surface value, would indicate. In most of the communities 
the young people are 15 per cent, or less of the total church mem- 
bership, whereas elsewhere in the country the average is around 
25 per cent. The few towns in these counties bring the total average 
a little higher than 15 per cent, but in the smaller churches, which 
constitute two-thirds of the total number, the young folks are the 
smallest element in the church membership. 

Numerous suggestions bearing on the solution of this and other 
problems discussed which are scattered through the text can be 

87 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

summarized in one word — cooperation. The decrease in population, 
the increased facilities for transportation, the trend of the times, the 
lack of interest on the part of the people themselves in the Church 
as shown by decreasing attendance, these and other things condemn 
the present system, at least if judged by the results which it has 
produced. Cooperation among the churches of these counties, en- 
couraged and nurtured by the overhead denominational officials, 
could work out a series of advanced steps which are greatly needed. 
Among them are these : 

I. ADEQUATE EVANGELISM 

At the present time there is indifference to the Church. The 
people are not hearing its message as once they did. The young 
people are drifting from its influence. There are neglected areas 
within some of these counties, notably in Addison. Here and there 
are neglected groups of people, such as some of the foreigners who 
have moved into Tompkins County or some of the summer resort 
people in Addison County. Adequate understanding among the 
churches, together with a united program, would remedy this situa- 
tion to an appreciable degree. 

2. STRONGER CHURCHES 

The "Vermont' plan," described in Chapter X, needs to be tried 
in every one of these counties. It is the only thing which can pre- 
vent religious decadence. The churches at present, weak as they are, 
make no appeal to the unchurched. They are self -condemned. With 
a century or more of history behind them in which to appeal for 
service and interest, they confess by what they are that they have 
been unable to hold their own in the estimation of the community 
or that they have been unable to adjust themselves to the changing 
conditions around them. Most of these communities need just one 
church and until they get it with the blessing and help of the de- 
nominational executives the cause of Christ will suffer. 



3. RESIDENT MINISTERS 

The churches in these counties have made a brave struggle to 
retain resident ministers. To a large extent they have succeeded, but 
at the expense of the ministers themselves. What is happening is, 
however, shown in Tompkins and Warren Counties. The latter has 

88 



CONCLUSION 

only one community out of twenty-eight in which there is a full-time 
resident pastor. By a comity agreement among denominations, so 
that there would be one denominational church in each of the smaller 
communities, it would be possible to secure the resident leadership 
of a trained minister of religion, who could furnish the inspiration 
and executive direction for an adequate program of spiritual and 
community service on the part of the church. 

4. LONGER PASTORATES 

A resident minister with a man-sized job serving the one church 
in a community would be more eager to stay longer in his field. At 
the present time the constant turn-over on the part of the ministers is 
unsettling the whole church situation. Few of them stay long enough 
to do abiding work. Until ministers are willing to invest years of 
their lives in touching the lives of people individually and in their 
social relationships through the community, the Church cannot make 
its greatest contribution. 

5. LARGER SALARIES 

Stronger churches with resident ministers spending four to ten 
years in a community would bring a response from the people that 
would insure the larger salaries necessary to obtain this type of 
service. The average salaries of the ministers in these counties is 
a disgrace to the Church. Including the value of the parsonage, 
where it is given free of charge, the average salary is $1,289.30. 
Ministers cannot sustain adequate family life on this figure. Under 
the present system, however, they can never hope for any larger 
economic return. 

6. BROADER PROGRAMS 

A resident minister, free of the necessity for worrying about the 
next meal for his family or the next suit of clothes for himself, 
and well trained in the tasks of the Church, can become director of 
an all-round program which is so much needed in most of these 
communities. Boys and girls must be won. One avenue to their 
lives is through recreation. Communities need to be socialized. 
The Church, which is vitally interested in economic progress and is 
more sensitive to economic changes than any other social institution, 
needs to cooperate with those organizations which make for economic 

89 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

and social progress. The program of the Church must be all-week- 
through, all-year-around. 




THE ONLY COMMUNITY-MINDED CHURCH IN WARREN COUNTY 
The Methodist Episcopal Church at Chestertown, N. Y. 



,7. MORE EQUIPMENT 

The type of program outlined above, under the direction of the 
type of man who could be procured, will soon call for more equip- 
ment. Class rooms will be needed in the Sunday schools, even if 
the dividing walls be but curtains; use of pictures and stereopticons 
can be introduced. Strong communities will procure community 
houses. All these things are greatly needed for the bringing of an 

90 



CONCLUSION 

abundant life to the communities for the counties throughout this 
region. 

8. SOUNDER RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 

The Sunday schools of these counties are far behind the best 
practices of modern religious education. Even judged by the stand- 
ards of the State Sunday Scliool Associations they measure up but 
poorly. First, there is need for pressing the present methods to 
their fullest usefulness. That done, if the strong united church is 
secured, stronger Sunday schools will follow which will become 
church schools with all that that term implies in present-day thought. 

9. STRONGER FOUNDATIONS 

Programs, such as outlined above, cannot be sustained without 
the training of leaders. Only sixteen Sunday schools train teachers, 
still fewer churches are engaged in training volunteer leadership for 
the work of the organizations of the Church. These two tasks are 
most important but they can be accomplished as other things are 
done. 

10. A BROADER BASE 

The Church organized along the lines that have been indicated 
in this program will broaden its base and stretch out to include all 
racial and economic groups within the community. The neglected 
will no longer be slighted and as the home base broadens there will 
be still larger possibilities for world-wide service through the foreign 
mission machinery of the Church, and more than money — lives will 
be consecrated to service for the Kingdom of God, 



91 



Appendix I 
METHODOLOGY AND DEFINITIONS 

THE method used in the Town and Country Surveys of the 
Interchurch World Movement and of the Committee on 
Social and Religious Surveys differs from the method of 
earlier surveys in this field chiefly in the following particulars : 

1. "Rural" was defined as including all population living outside 
of incorporated places of more than 5,000. Previous surveys usually 
excluded all places of 2,500 population or over, which method follows 
the United States Census definition of "rural." 

2. The local unit for the assembling of material was the com- 
munity, regarded, usually, as the trade area of a town or village 
center. Previous surveys usually took the minor civil division as 
the local unit. The disadvantage of the community unit is that 
census and other statistical data are seldom available on that basis, 
thus increasing both the labor involved and the possibility of error. 
The great advantage is that it presents its results assembled on the 
basis of units having real social significance, which the minor civil 
division seldom has. This advantage is considered as more than 
compensating for the disadvantage. 

3. The actual service area of each church as indicated by the 
residences of its members and adherents was mapped and studied. 
This was an entirely new departure in rural surveys. 

Four chief processes were involved in the actual field work of 
these surveys : 

1. The determination of the community units and of any sul)- 
sidiary neighborhood units included within them. The community 
boundaries were ascertained by noting the location of the last family 
on each road leading out from a given center who regularly traded 
at that center. These points, indicated on a map, were connected 
with each other by straight lines. The area about the given center 
thus enclosed was regarded as the community. 

2. The study of the economic, social and institutional life of 
each community as thus defined. 

3. The location of each church in the county, the determination 
of its parish area and the detailed study of its equipment, finance, 
membership, organization, program and leadership. 

93 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

4. The preparation of a map showing, in addition to the usual 
physical features, the boundaries of each community, the location, 
parish area and circuit connections of each church and the residence 
of each minister. 

The following are the more important definitions used in the 
making of these surveys and the preparation of the reports: 

GEOGRAPHICAL 

City — a center of over 5,000 population. Not included within 
the scope of these surveys except as specifically noted. 

Town — a center with a population of from 2,501 to 5,000. 

Village — a center with a population of from 251 to 2,500. 

Hamlet — any clustered group of people not living on farms whose 
numbers do not exceed 250. 

Open Country — the farming area, excluding hamlets and other 
centers. 

Country — used in a threefold division of population included in 
scope of survey into Town, Village and Country. Includes Hamlets 
and Open Country. 

Town and Country — the whole area covered by these surveys, 
i.e., all population living outside of cities. 

Rural — used interchangeably with Town and Country. 

Community — that unit of territory and of population character- 
ized by common social and economic interests and experiences ; an 
aggregation of people the majority of whose interests have a common 
center." Usually ascertained by determining the normal trade area 
of each given center. The primary social grouping of sufficient size 
and diversity of interests to be practically self-sufficing in ordinary 
aifairs of business, civil and social life. 

Neutral Territory — any area not definitely included within the 
area of one community. Usually an area between two or more 
centers and somewhat influenced by each but whose interests are so 
scattered that it cannot definitely be assigned to the sphere of in- 
fluence of any one center. 

Neighborhood — a recognizable social grouping having certain in- 
terests in common but dependent for certain elemental needs upon 
some adjacent center within the community area of which it is 
located. 

Rural Industrial — pertaining to any industry other than farming 
within the Town and Country area. 

94 



APPENDIX I 



POPULATION 



Foreigner — refers to foreign-born and native-born of foreign 
parentage. 

New Americans — usually includes foreign-born and native-born 
of foreign or mixed parentage, but sometimes refers only to more 
recent immigration. In each case the exact meaning is clear from 
the context. 

THE CHURCH 

Parish — ^the area within which the members and regular attend- 
ants of a given church live. 

Circuit — two or more churches combined under the direction of 
one minister. 

Resident Pastor — a church whose minister lives within its parish 
area is said to have a resident pastor. 

Full-time Resident Pastor — a church with a resident pastor who 
serves no other church and follows no other occupation than the 
ministry is said to have a full-time resident pastor. 

Part-time Pastor — a church whose minister either serves another 
church also or devotes part of his time to some regular occupation 
other than the ministry, or both, is said to have a part-time minister. 

N on-Resident Member — one carried on the rolls of a given church 
but living too far away to permit regular attendance ; generally, any 
member living outside the community in which the church is located 
unless he is a regular attendant. 

Inactive Member — one who resides within the parish area of the 
church but who neither attends its services nor contributes to its 
support. 

Net Active Membership — the resultant membership of a given 
church after the number of non-resident and inactive members is 
deducted from the total on the church roll. 

Per Capita Contributions or Expenditures — the total amount con- 
tributed or expended divided by the number of the net active 
membership. 

Budget System, — A church which at the beginning of the fiscal 
year makes an itemized forecast of the entire amount of money 
required for its maintenance during the year as a basis for a canvass 
of its membership for funds is said to operate on a budget system 
with respect to its local finances. If amounts to be raised for de- 
nominational or other benevolences are included in the forecast and 

95 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 

canvass, it is said to operate on a budget system for all moneys raised. 

Adequate Financial System — ^three chief elements are recognized 
in an adequate financial system : a budget system, an annual every- 
member canvass and the use of envelopes for the weekly payment of 
subscriptions. 

Receipts — receipts have been divided under three heads : 

a. Subscriptions, that is, moneys received in payment of annual 
pledges. 

b. Collections, that is money received from free-will offerings at 
public services. 

c. All other sources of revenue, chiefly proceeds of entertain- 
ments and interest on endowments. 

Salary of Minister — inasmuch as some ministers receive in addi- 
tion to their cash salary the free use of a house while others do 
not, a comparison of the cash salaries paid is misleading. In all 
salary comparisons, therefore, the cash value of a free parsonage is 
arbitrarily stated as $250 a year and that amount is added to the cash 
salary of each minister with free parsonage privileges. Thus an 
average salary stated as $1,450 is equivalent to $1,200 cash and the 
free use of a house. 



96 



Appendix II 
TABLES 



I. POPULATION, 1890-1920 



f — Tompkins County, N. F. 
Urban-incorporated 
Addison County, places of 3,000 



f — Warren County, N. Y. 
Urban-incorporated 
places of 3,000 



Year 


Vt. 


or more 


Rural 


or more 


Rural 


1920 
1910 
1900 
1890 


18,666 
20,010 
21,912 

22,277 


18,484 
14,802 
13,136 
11,079 


16.801 

18,845 
20,694 
21,844 


16,638 

15,243 
12,613 

9,509 


15,035 
16,980 
17,330 
18,357 


Gain or 
loss 


Minus 


Plus 


Minus 


Plus 


Minus 


1890-1920 


3,611—16% 


7,405-^7% 


5,043—24% 


7,129—75% 


3,322—22% 



2. DISTRIBUTION OF RURAL POPULATION, 1920 

No. 





Popu- 


Popula- 


Total 


No. 


increas 


County 


lation 


tion in 


Rural 


of 


mg in 




in Vil- 


Coun- 


Popula- 


Commun- 


Popu- 




lages 


try 


tion 


ities 


lation 


Addison, Vt 


• 7,935 


10,731 


18,666 


26 . 


3 


Tompkins, N. Y. 


7,777 


9,024 


16,801 


28 


I 


Warren, N. Y.. 


■ 5,731 


9,304 


15,035 


28 






Total 21,443 29,059 



50,502 



82 



3. FARM FACTS 

Addison County, Tompkins County, Warren County, 

Vt. N. Y. N. Y. 

Number of Farms.... 2,375 2,550 1,564 

Per Cent, of Decrease 

in No., 1900-1920. . . 12% 22% 26% 

Per Cent, of Land 

Area in Farms 77.1% 83.3% 38.2% 

Per Cent, of Farm 

Land Improved 58.4% 73-7% 37-5% 

Average Number Acres 

per Farm 157.1% 99-5% 137.0% 

Average Value per 

Farm $9,787 $8,1 10 $4,820 

Average Value of Land 

per Acre $ 22.76 $ 29.38 $ 12.96 

Per Cent. Owners 77% 82% 80% 

Per Cent. Tenants 23% 18% 20% 

97 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 







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98 



APPENDIX II 



7. NUMBER OF CHURCHES BY DENOMINATION 

Denomination Addison, Vt. Tompkins, N. Y. Warren, N. Y. Total 

Methodist Episcopal.... 14 29 15 58 

Protestant Episcopal... 46 9 19 

Baptist 4 10 4 18 

Congregationalist 8 5 — 13 

Wesleyan Methodist..-. — I 78 

Presbyterian — U.S.A... — 2 3 5 

Union or Community. . — — 5 5 
Federated Baptist and 

Methodist Episcopal. .4 — — 4 

Orthodox Friends 2 1 — 3 

Pentecostal Holiness... — — 3 3 

Universalist — I — I 

Christian — • I — I 

Brethren — I — i 

Christian and Missionary 

Alliance — — I i 

Advent Christian i — — i 

Pentecostal Nazarene . . i — - i 
Federated Congrega- 
tional and Methodist. I — — I 
Congregational yoked 
with Methodist Epis- 
copal I . — — I 



Total 40 57 47 144 



8. VALUE OF CHURCH PROPERTY 

Addison, Vt. Warren, N.Y. Tompkins, N. Y. Total 

No. of Church build- 
ings 42 46 57 145 

Total value $298,250 $153,373 $273,350 $724,973 

Average value 7,101 3,334 4,796 5,000 

No. of parsonages. 32 23 31 86 

Total value $75,250 $50,975 $64,956 $191,181 

Average value . 2,352 2,216 2,095 ^,223 

No. of other build- 
ings 7 6 6 19 

Total value $ 7,820 $36,000 $11,650 $55,470 

Average value 1,117 6,000 1,942 2,919 



99 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 



9- SIZE OF CHURCH MEMBERSHIPS 

Church Membership Addison, Vt. Warren, N.Y. Tompkins, N. Y. Total 

o to 25 8 16 15 39 

26 to 50 13 14 22 49 

SI to 100 9 8 13 30 

loi to 150 7 3 I II 

Over 150 3 I 6 10 

Total 40 42 57 139 

(5 churches (5 churches 

without without 

membership membership 

figures) figures) 



10. INCREASE AND DECREASE IN MEMBERSHIP DURING 

THE LAST 10 YEARS 

County f Number of Churches ^ Total 

Gaining Losing Stationary 

Addison, Vt 15 21 4 40 

Warren, N. Y 14 15 18 47 

Tompkins, N. Y 26 26 5 57 

Total 55 62 27 144 



II. MEMBERSHIP OF CHURCHES, 1920 

Membership Addison, Vt. Warren, N. Y. Tompkins, N. Y. Total 

Net Active 2,777 2,030 3,357 8,164 

Non-resident 770 211 836 i,8i7 

Non-active 142 239 484 865 

Total Enrollment... 3,689 2,480 4,677 10,846 



12. NUMBER OF FAMILIES IN CHURCH MEMBERSHIP 



Number of 
Families in 

Village Churches. 
Country Churches. 

Total 



Addison, Vt. Warren, N. Y. Tompkins, N. Y. Total 

685 480 966 2,131 

721 302 928 1,951 



1,406 



782 



1,894 



4,082 



100 



APPENDIX II 



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101 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 



i6. CHURCHES GAINING AND LOSING DURING ONE-YEAR 

PERIOD 

Gaining Losing Stationary 

County Number Per Cent. Number Per Cent. Number Per Cent. 

Addison, Vt.. . . ii 
Warren, N. Y.. 19 
Tompkins, N. Y. 25 

55 



28 


15 


37 


14 


35 


40 


7 


15 


21 


45 


44 


21 


37 


II 


19 



38 



43 



30 



46 



32 





17. ANNUAL EXPENSE. 




Addison County, 
Vt 


Salaries 
$28,476.39 


Benevolences 
$ 8,530.41 


Other 
$11,319.65 


Total Expenditures 
$ 48,326.45 


Warren County, 
N. Y 


59% 
24,419.10 


18% 


22% 
15,532.20 


^49,644.42 


Tompkins County, 
N. Y 


49% 
27,881.77 


20% 
17,671.21 


31% 
19,845.87 


65,398.85 




43% 
$80,777.26 


27% 
$35,894-74 


30% 




Total 


$46,697.72 


%i6z,36g.72 




49% 


22% 


29% 





18. AVERAGE PER CAPITA EXPENSE 

Addison County, Warren County, Tompkins County, 

Vt. N. Y. N. Y. 

Open Open Open 

Village Country Village Country Village Country 

Salary $8.57 $13.01 $11.52 $13.82 $7.91 $8.94 

Benevolence . z.2,7 2.59 5.90 3.07 5.63 4.71 

Other 5.10 2.40 7.99 7.58 6.82 4.54 

Total $17.04 $18.00 $25.41 $24.47 $20.36 $18.19 



102 



APPENDIX II 



19. HOW THE TYPICAL CHURCH DOLLAR IS SPENT 

Addison County, Warren County, Tompkins County, 

Vt. N. Y. N. Y. 

Open Open Open 

Village Country Village Country Village Country 

Salary $0.30 $0.72 $0.46 $0.56 $0.39 $0.49 

Benevolence . .20 .15 .2^ .13 ,28 .26 

Other 50 .13 .31 .31 .Z3 .25 

Total $1.00 $1.00 $1.00 $1.00 $1.00 $1.00 



20. THE MINISTER 



Number 
with Number 

Number other Number Number with 

of occu- Resident Non- no 

Pastors pation in Parish Resident Pastor 



Addison 

County, Vt... 31 5 29 

Warren 

County, N. Y. 26 5 25 

Tompkins 

County, N.Y. 35 9 25 

Totals .... 92 19 79 



ID 

16 
28 

54 



I 
6 

4 
II 



Number of 

Communities 

with 

Full-time 

Resident 

Pastor 

15 out of 26 

I out of 28 

8 out of 28 

24 out of 82 



21. PASTORS' SALARIES 

Average Range of Maximum Minimum Average 
Addison County, 

Vt $1,250-$!, 450 $2,050 $750 $1,321 

Warren County, 

N.Y $i,250-$i,500 $2,500 $98.10 $1,412 

Tompkins County, 

N. Y $i,35o-$i,450 $2,050 $250 $1,177 



22. PASTORAL TRAINING 

College Seminary 

Addison County, Vt 8 4 

Warren County, N. Y 3 3 

Tompkins County, N. Y 7 2 

Total 18—19% 9—10% 

103 



Both 



Neither 



14 


5 


13 


7 


17 


9 



44—48% 21—23% 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 



Pastors Receiving 
o to $ 500, 



$ 



501 

751 

1,001 

1,251 
1,501 
1,751 



to 
to 
to 
to 
to 
to 



Over 



750. 
1,000. 
1,250. 
1,500. 
1,750. 
2,000. 
2,000. 



2z. RANGE OF SALARIES 

Addison, Vt. Warren, N.Y. Tompkins, N.Y. Total 



Total 



I 
I 

5 
9 
8 

5 
I 
I 

31 



4 

I 
I 

5 
6 

3 
3 
3 

26 



5 
5 
2 
6 
10 

4 
I 
2 

35 



10 

7 

8 

20 

24 

12 

5 
6 

92 



24. PASTORAL SERVICE TO CHURCHES 

Pastors Addison, Warren, Tompkins, Total Number 

Serving Vt. N. Y. N. Y. Pastors Serving 

1 point 25 13 15 53 

2 points 3 8 14 25 

3 points 245 II 

4 points I o I 2 

5 points 000 o 

6 points I o I 

(31) (26) (35) (92) 



25. PASTORS' SALARIES CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO TYPES 

OF COMMUNITIES 



Summer 
Industrial Resort 

Maximum $1,800 $2,500 

Minimum 585 975 

Average 1,178 i,557 



Non- 
resort 

$1,850 $1,750 

98.10 375 

1,225 1,203 



Hill Valley 

$2,050 

375 

1,324 



All 3 
Counties 

$2,500 
98.10 
1,289.30 



104 



APPENDIX II 



26. SUNDAY SCHOOLS 

Per 

Per cent. 

cent. Aver- of Aver- Num- 

of age Total total age her 

total Enroll- Aver- Sunday Attend- pupils 

Number Total Church ment age School ancc from 
of Enroll- Enroll- per Attetul- Enroll- per Farm 

Schools ment ment School ance ment School Homes 
Addison, 

Vt 37 2140 58 58 1262 59 34 1202 

Warren, 

N. Y 36 1880 y6 52 1168 62 32 595 

Tompkins, 

N. Y 50 3781 80 175 1981 52 40 1847 

Tortal... 123 7801 72 63 441 1 57 36 3644 

279 (Memberships of 9 separate Sunday Schools) 
Total 8080 

Sunday School enrollment of 3 counties. 
(70% of Church Enrollment) 



27. SUNDAY SCHOOL STATISTICS 

Addison, Warren, Tompkins, 

Number of Sunday Schools Having: Vt. N.Y. N.Y. 

Provision for leadership 3 3 i 

Efforts to increase attendance 15 8 17 

Organized departments 18 3 13 

Cradle rolls 24 14 22 

Home departments 15 12 24 

Teacher training classes 826 

Sunday School papers 34 24 48 

Libraries 25 14 19 

Home Mission study 21 19 23 

Annual picnics 26 17 42 

Socials 17 II 28 

Other social times as a whole 14 13 26 

Other organizations o I 8 

Classes to prepare for church 

membership 2 9 15 

Number pupils beyond High School 75 24 81 
Number pupils entering Christian 

work during last 10 years 8 6 20 

Number pupils joining church last 

year 84 58 134 

From how many churches 15 12 23 



Total 



7 
40 

34 
60 

51 
16 
106 
58 
63 
85 
56 
53 
9 

26 
180 

34 

276 
50 



105 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES 



28. PUBLIC SCHOOL VERSUS SUNDAY SCHOOL 
ENROLLMENT 



Addison, Vt 

Warren, N. Y 

Tompkins, N. Y 

Total 8906 



Total Number 
Young People 
Under 21 in 
Rural Popula- 
tion Attending 
Public Schools 

3400 
2443 
3063 


Total 
Number in 

Rural Churches 
Attending 

Sunday Schools 

2140 
1880 
3781 


Percentage of 
Public School 

Pupils in 
Sunday School 

63% 

77% 

123% 





7801 



88% 



29. AVERAGE PER CAPITA CONTRIBUTION IN RESORT AND 
NON-RESORT COMMUNITIES OF WARREN COUNTY, N. Y. 

Expenses: 22 Resort Churches Average Per Capita 

Salaries 56% $i4-97 

Benevolences iS% 4.17 

Other 29% 7.85 

$26.99 
Receipts: 

Subscription 56% $15.16 

Collection 35% 9.66 

Other 9% 2.29 

$27.11 

Expenses: 25 Non-Resort Churches Average Per Capita 

Salaries 42% $9.12 

Benevolences 24% 5,37 

Other 34% 7.45 

$21.94 , 
Receipts: 

Subscription 87% $19.03 

Collection 8% 1.87 

Other 5% 1.05 

$21.95 



106 



UNIQUE STUDIES OF RURAL AMERICA 
TOWN AND COUNTRY SERIES TWELVE VOLUMES 

MADE UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 

Edmund deS. Brunner, Ph.D. 

What the Protestant Churches Are Doing and Can Do 
for Rural America — The Results of Twenty- 
Six Intensive County Surveys 

Description 

(i) Church and Community Survey of 
Salem County, N. J 

(2) Church and Community Survey of 
Pend Oreille County, Washington.. 

(;^) Church and Community Survey of 
Sedgwick County, Kansas 

(4) Religion in the Old and New South.. 

(5) The Old and New Immigrant on the 

Land, as seen in two Wisconsin 
counties 

(6) Rural Church Life in the Middle 

West 

(7) The Country Church in Colonial 

Counties 

(8) Irrigation and Religion, a study of 

two prosperous California counties 

(9) The Church on the Changing Fron- 

tier 

(10) The Rural Church Before and After 
the War, Comparative Studies of 
Two Surveys 

(n) The Country Church in Industrial 
Zones 

(12) The Town and Country Church in 
the United States 

^'They are fine pieces of work and examples of what we need to have 

done on a large scale." — Dr. Charles A. EUwood, Dept. of SocIolog}^ 

University of Missouri. 

"I am heartily appreciative of these splendid results." — Rev. Charles S. 

Macfarland, Genl. Secy., Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in 

America. 



Publication 


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Published by GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY, New York 

FOR 
COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS SURVEYS 

III FIFTH AVENUF, NEW YORK 



